What Makes A Mother
by SJTiger
Summary: We know almost nothing about Cole's past, especially about his mother. Told mostly through flashbacks, this is my theory on what happened to her. I also try to answer unanswered questions about the previous generation of Elemental Masters. Formerly called "Truth About Cole."
1. Chapter 1

"Where's the oxygen?"

"Get him onto the bed! Hurry!"

"What are his vitals like, Zane?"

Pain shot through Cole's body as his friends carried him to the infirmary on the _Destiny's Bounty_. He tried to open his eyes, but the lights blinded him. He felt them place him onto a bed and put stuff in and on his body. He groaned as someone stuck something into his arm.

"Cole? Can you hear me, buddy?" Jay asked.

"His heart rate is 180 and climbing," Zane said matter-of-factly.

"Cole, if you see a light, don't go towards it, okay? Stay away from the light!" Jay screeched.

"Kai, what happened to Cole?" Wu asked.

"It was crazy, Master. That woman, I don't even know what she did to him. She said she wanted to take Cole's power for herself. Is that even possible?" Kai asked with panic in his voice.

"Chen took our powers once," Zane answered.

"With magic. She didn't have anything magical that I saw. Just a bunch of machines."

"Enough. We will deal with her once Cole is better. Where is Lou?" Wu asked.

"I saw him go into the restroom," Misako said.

If Cole could open his eyes, he would roll them. His dad hated heights, so of course he had found somewhere to anchor down and hide. He was never around when Cole actually needed him. After twenty years of this, Cole was not surprised. He had always gone to Anna whenever he needed something, but she was gone now. She had been gone for years. The way he felt, he might soon join her in the Departed Realm.

"His blood pressure is rising dangerously fast," Zane said.

"There has to be something we can do," Lloyd said.

"All we can do is hope he survives until we can get him somewhere safe," Wu said.

"Yeah, well, hope won't help us with that. Look!" Kai said.

"How did she follow us?" Nya asked.

Cole wished he could see what they were seeing, but at the same time, he was glad he couldn't. He had a feeling he would not like whatever was appearing on the screen. Whatever they had given Cole was starting to take effect, since he suddenly felt very sleepy. While everyone was looking at the security footage, he took some deep breaths and let himself fall asleep.

He woke up in a dark place. Chills went through his body as his eyes adjusted. He could hear his friends calling his name, but they were nowhere to be found. As he looked around, clouds surrounded him. He couldn't see anyone or anything.

"Where am I?" Cole asked himself. He expected silence, but he felt like there was a presence near him he could not place.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" As Cole slowly turned around, he realized that he was no longer in any pain. When he looked at his arms, all the scrapes and bruises that were there just a couple hours earlier were gone.

"Am I… Am I in the Departed Realm?"

"No."

Cole whipped around to face the voice and saw someone walking towards him. As the figure came closer, he realized it was someone dressed in a Ninjago military uniform. A few steps later, and Cole recognized the rank as a lieutenant colonel.

"… Anna?" Cole ran to her and stopped just as he reached her. He slowly reached out and touched her arm, to make sure she was real. She was. He wrapped his arms around her, and she held him close.

"Oh, Cole. It is good to see you again. I almost didn't recognize you, you've grown so much," Anna said as she stroked his hair.

"Anna, I-I don't understand. How are you here? Where are we?"

"Your spirit is between realms right now. I've come to help guide you. I will have to return to the Departed Realm, but you could either go with me or return to Ninjago."

"Between realms? How did I get here?"

"I do not know, Cole. What happened right before you arrived?"

"Um, my friends and I went to go save Dad, and this woman claiming to be my mother was there. She captured me and hooked me up to this machine. The next thing I know, I'm being carried onto the _Bounty_ and everyone is panicking."

"Your mother?" Anna asked.

"That's what she said. I need to ask Dad about that."

"What did she look like? Did she say her name?"

"Uh… Morgen, I think. She had dark hair, and there was a scar on her left cheek. She was absolutely insane. She said she was going to take my elemental power and transfer it to her."

"That's what she wanted this entire time? Your power? Do you even have a power?"

"Yes, I'm the Master of Earth. Why? What's going on?"

Anna sighed. She avoided looking at Cole.

"Anna?" Cole asked.

"I suppose your father never did tell you the truth. I told him over and over again you deserved to know."

"Know what?"

"What happened between him and your mother. Your real mother."


	2. Chapter 2

Lou slowly made his way down the hall, sucking on mints to curb the nausea. The ninja wanted to take Cole to the monastery, but Lou eventually convinced them he needed to be in a hospital, specifically St. Albert's in Ninjago City. He slowly made his way to the infirmary. No one was there, but Cole's vitals were remotely linked to Zane, so they could be there if anything happened. Lou looked at his son. Cole looked pale and lifeless. This wasn't the first time his ex-wife had hospitalized Cole, but it could be the time she actually succeeded in killing him.

* * *

Cole was born on a Wednesday afternoon. Lou took the rest of the week off work, even though the Royal Blacksmiths were about to start a tour the next Friday and there were still a million things to do before then. Shortly after they came home Thursday, Lou noticed something was off with Morgen, but he assumed she was just tired.

All weekend long, visitors came, but Morgen was still off. Everyone brushed it off as sleep deprivation.

"I'm fine," Morgen snapped when he asked her how she was feeling.

Lou felt in his gut that there was something more going on with Morgen, but he didn't know how to talk to her about it. He wanted to take more time off work, and even called to see if he could take Monday off as well, but Matt, his manager, wasn't having any of it.

"We leave this Friday! You assured me months ago that having a kid wasn't going to affect anything! If you aren't here by nine o'clock sharp, I'll… do something to make you regret it… Just get here!" Matt screamed through the phone.

Lou felt awful about leaving Morgen alone with Cole all day, but he was worried Matt would have an aneurysm or something if he didn't show up.

"Bye, Morgen. I'll be back around six tonight," Lou said before he kissed her cheek.

"Yeah, whatever," Morgen mumbled as she walked into the kitchen.

Lou sighed and left the house. He wasn't ten steps down the street when he saw how dark the sky was and decided he better bring an umbrella. He quickly ran back in the house and dug through the hall closet, but there wasn't an umbrella there.

"Morgen? Do you know where an umbrella is?" Lou called. There was no response. He went into the kitchen and found her abandoned coffee. He checked the downstairs bathroom for her, but it was empty. He ran upstairs to see if she was in the nursery.

Morgen was standing over Cole's bassinet, staring at him as he slept, knife in hand, when Lou entered.

"Morgen, do you-what are you doing?" Lou slowly walked towards her.

"It was him. He took them from me. He did," Morgen muttered.

"Okay, Morgen, I don't know what you're talking about, but how about you give me the knife, and we can talk about it with a trained professional." Lou reached for the knife, but she wouldn't let him have it.

"He has to go, Lou. Everything will return to normal if he goes."

"You're not making any sense, Morgen."

"I never wanted to have children anyway," Morgen said as she raised the knife.

Lou quickly grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back, causing her to drop the knife. Morgen screamed and kicked over Cole's bassinet. Cole screamed as he rolled out onto the floor. Morgen kicked Lou in the knee hard enough to make him loosen his grip on her just long enough for her to escape. She grabbed the knife and raised it, but Lou grabbed her arm. She struggled, accidentally cutting her left cheek in the process, but she managed to free her arm and thrust the knife into Lou's stomach. He fell onto her, but she threw him onto the floor. She looked over at Cole, who was still crying, then she looked around the room.

"Morgen…" Lou grimaced.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way, Lou." She picked up the lamp on the table.

Just then, a man with a long, white beard wearing a bamboo hat burst into the room.

"Morgen, put down the lamp this instant!"

"Wu? How did you get in here? What are you even doing here?" Morgen asked.

"Your father was worried about you and asked me to check in on you. When I arrived, I heard the struggle," Wu explained.

"I have to make things right."

"This isn't the way."

Lou didn't see what happened next, since he passed out from pain and shock. He woke up hours later in a hospital bed. Once he gained his bearings, he pressed the nurse call button.

"Ah, you're awake." The nurse smiled at him.

"What happened?" Lou asked weakly.

"You were stabbed. The police are outside. They want to talk to you." The nurse grabbed his chart and wrote something on it.

"Cole… Where is Cole?" Lou tried to sit up, but a sharp, stabbing pain forced him to lie back down.

"It's okay, Mr. … I'm probably wrong but I'm going to go with Burton. Your son is in the NICU, and he's going to be okay. I don't know the extent of his injuries, but I can get one of the NICU nurses up here to talk in a moment to talk about them. Now… Lucan?"

"Lucien. Three syllables."

"Right, Lucien. I'm going to give you something for the pain, and then I need to check your bandages. Then you will talk to the police, and I will find someone who knows what's going on with your son."

Lou nodded and let her do her job. A couple of police officers came in and he answered their questions as best as he could. They told him that by the time they arrived at the house, Morgen was nowhere to be found, that the old man had scared her off and probably saved Cole's life in the process. The NICU nurse came in and said they didn't think Cole had a concussion, but he did fracture his arm, and they wanted to keep him overnight for observation.

* * *

"Lou? There you are. We're nearing St. Albert's. We're seeing if we can land on the helipad," Kai said as he entered the room, snapping Lou back to the present.

"Yes, thank you. Do you have a phone I could borrow? I think mine is at my house," Lou asked.

"Yeah, in the bridge."

Lou groaned at the thought of going up to the bridge of the flying ship. He popped another mint in his mouth and followed the Master of Fire.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dad never talked about her. I know she stabbed him and that's why they divorced, but he never talked about her. I didn't even know her name until this afternoon," Cole said as he sat down. He had no idea what he was sitting on, since the thick fog came up to his chest, but he chose to assume it was ground.

"Well, the stabbing was just the straw that broke the camel's back," Anna said, sitting down next to him.

"How long will I be stuck here?"

"Until you give up and go with me or soldier up and go back to Ninjago."

"Great," Cole mumbled.

"What is it?"

"I don't know if I want to go back. Because if I go back, then I have to talk to Dad about everything. And if I do that, I feel like we'll go back to not talking to each other."

"Cole…"

"I fessed up to everything I did. I told him I ran away from that torture chamber- I mean school- he sent me to. I told him I went to work with you most days. I thought we were going to try being honest with each other, like you always wanted. I guess I was wrong about him changing."

"He was just trying to protect you, Cole."

"I don't need protecting."

"You're in limbo!"

Cole looked at Anna, not sure what to say. As usual, she was right. He sighed and buried his face in his arms.

"How old are you now?" Anna asked a moment later.

"I'm twenty."

"Twenty? No. You can't be twenty. I refuse to believe that. Just the other day, you were yay high, climbing up the refrigerator to reach the cookie jar. Oh. You were lucky you were a cute lad."

"Anna…" Cole knew she was setting up to relive embarrassing moments, and he was glad there wasn't anyone around to hear.

"I remember when I first met you. Your mother was my best friend when we were kids. After graduation, we made sure to keep in touch. Which wasn't easy, since I went into the military and she got a job at a concert hall. But we kept in touch. I was her maid of honor at the wedding. She made me wear this super frilly floor-length pink dress that had puffed sleeves."

"You wore a dress?" Cole laughed. He had only seen Anna wear a dress once in his life: at her wedding, and he knew she hated every minute she was in the thing.

"I did. It was hideous. Anyway, a year or so after the wedding, I hear that Morgen had given birth to a little boy. I was a major at the time, so I went to my colonel and secured leave for the next weekend to come visit. Before I could visit, the police came to me and asked me if I knew where Morgen was. I said, 'no, I haven't seen her in months. I was going to see her this coming weekend.' They told me that she tried to kill you and she stabbed Lou. I was like, 'what? Morgen? No, she wouldn't do anything like that. Morgen couldn't hurt a fly.' I told my colonel that I was leaving the next day instead of on Friday."

"And he just let you?" Cole knew the military were real sticklers when it came to things like official leave. He also knew that the higher your rank, the more weight you could pull when requesting something. But he didn't think a major had enough rank to pull a stunt like that. Then again, Anna could be extremely intimidating when she wanted to be.

"I said if he needed to court-martial me, then to go ahead, but I was going to find out what happened. I get to St. Albert's Hospital, and Lou is talking with a divorce lawyer. He gave me a brief rundown on what happened, then I went to the NICU to see you. They let me hold you and feed you a bottle. You were so tiny, and your little arm was broken."

"My arm was broken?"

"Yes, and I felt so sorry for you. You were adorable. You had a little bit of black fuzz for hair, and you looked at me with those big eyes, and my heart just melted." Anna said a few more sentences about how adorable baby Cole was, but her squealing combined with her Celtic accent made them indistinguishable.

"You're such a girl sometimes. Also, my arm was broken?" Cole repeated once Anna stopped making noise.

"Yes. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I know your mother caused it. Anyway, I felt sorry for you and your father, and his parents weren't helping out as much as they were going, 'Lucien, I told you that woman would bring you nothing but trouble.' I helped out by running some errands, and then I had to convince Matt that no, Lou could not go on tour just then as he was just stabbed by his wife and became a single parent, so maybe it would be a good idea to cancel the tour outright while Lou got his life back together."

"… Yeah, that sounds like Matt."

"When your father was on his feet again, he took me out to dinner to thank me for helping out with you. He asked me on more dates, which mostly ended with him passed out on the couch while I took care of you. Three years later, I'm walking down the aisle to him."

"And we moved onto the base," Cole groaned. He hated life on the military base, and he was thrilled when Anna retired and they moved to Ninjago City when he was six.

"It wasn't all bad. If I flew with my squadron at an event, we got free tickets so you and your father could watch me in action."

"I was picked on and beat up by the other kids, and their moms did nothing to stop them because they were too busy talking about me. Billy Sykes was the worst of them."

"I know, Commander Sykes and I had words more than once because of the two of you. It was good that I outranked him."

"I would love to look Billy Sykes in the eye right now, let him see what the runt can do," Cole muttered to himself.

"Violence is not always the answer. Your mother acted out in violence and ended up on the Most Wanted list."

"Seriously?"

" Yes. Your father, on the other hand, has always acted in your best interest. He demanded custody of you, which the judge immediately granted. It was his idea to move to the base, since he knew Morgen was still out there. A couple times, she actually did send some goons to scope out the place, and they were dumb enough to try and break onto the base. Your real mother is unpredictable, and your father has always done what he could to keep you from her grasp, because no one knew what she was capable of. Speaking of, if she hooked you up to a machine and shocked you the way you said she did, then clearly she had some help."


	4. Chapter 4

Cole was a vegetable. At least, that was how Lou interpreted the nurse's medical jargon. All they could do was keep him comfortable until he woke up. If he woke up. Every few hours, they would roll him into a different position to prevent bedsores. Every once in a while, his eyes would open, but they wouldn't focus on anything, and he didn't respond to any form of stimuli. Mostly he slept. His vitals weren't good, but at least they were somewhat stable for the time being.

Lou called one of Anna's old military friends and asked for help. He did not trust the police to protect Cole from another attack, since they had proven incompetent in the past. The military, on the other hand, were more than willing to do whatever it took to keep Cole safe.

"Anything for the lieutenant colonel's son."

Lou was sitting next to Cole, watching him breathe when Wu came in.

"How is he?" Wu asked.

"Not good. They don't know what's going on with him. The plan is to make him as comfortable as possible and wait and see what happens," Lou explained.

"Ah. The others wish to see him."

"No. They're the reason he's here in the first place. I told them it was a trap, but they didn't listen."

"They did what I'm sure they thought they must do."

"I told them to leave! Morgen wasn't going to hurt me. She was never after me. She wanted Cole. It's always been about Cole with her. I've spent the last twenty years trying to keep her from getting to him, and he walks into her home." Lou turned his attention back to Cole. The man who could sing and dance his way through any situation sighed in defeat.

"Cole is strong. If anyone can pull through this, it is him," Wu said after a minute of silence.

"No. She won. She finally won," Lou muttered. He felt like the room was closing in around him.

"She did not win. He is still alive."

"Not for long… I need some air." Lou got up and left the room, making sure one of the MPs standing guard outside the room went in to keep an eye on Cole. He made his way downstairs. The other ninja, who were anxiously waiting in the waiting room, ran over when they saw him.

"How is he? Will he be alright?" Jay demanded.

Lou silently walked past them and out of the hospital. He made his way down the street in a haze. He somehow made his way to his house, a good forty-five minute walk from the hospital. He opened the door and looked around.

Everything was just as Lou had left it when his kidnappers had rung the doorbell. The TV was on, there was a half-eaten sandwich on a plate on the coffee table, and next to the plate was his lyrics notebook, open to the song he had been working on. He cleaned up his mess, turned the TV off, and headed upstairs. He threw some clothes, his toothbrush, laptop, chargers, and a few other essentials into a small suitcase and went down the hall to Cole's old room.

Most of Cole's things were at the monastery, but Lou decided to look anyway. It was mostly empty, but there were some old books from Cole's childhood on the shelves and one book on the headboard. Lou picked it up. It was a book of silly poems for children. He didn't know how many times he had come home and found Anna reading this book to Cole. As he leafed through the book, something came fell out of it. It was a picture of the three of them in front of Anna's fighter jet when Cole was five years old. Lou remembered that day.

Anna was the first women pilot to be selected to fly with the demonstration squadron that performed at airshows and such. After three years of flying with them, this day was her first time commanding them. Lou and Cole were in the audience. They watched as the six pilots walked down the runway to their aircraft. Lou was always impressed with how sharp Anna looked in her flight suit. When she took off her cap to put on her helmet, the sun made her blonde bun light up like a halo. The pair watched as the planes taxied to the end of the runway, before taking off as a group. The little boy was fascinated by the maneuvers the pilots performed. Over an hour later, the planes landed. Lou and Cole made their way onto the runway to meet up with Anna. She picked Cole up so he could get a better look at the plane, and the event photographer saw them and snapped a picture of the three of them.

Lou put the picture back in the book and placed it back on the headboard. He found some of Cole's old shirts and put them in the suitcase along with a few other things he thought Cole might need. He went back downstairs. A picture on the mantle caught his eye. The three were on an aircraft carrier. Anna was in her formal wear, and Cole, four years old at the time, was standing on the railing of the ship, wearing Anna's cap. The picture was taken only half an hour before Morgen's forces attacked the carrier, which was full of civilians at the time. The military quickly subdued the terrorists, but Morgen was nowhere to be found. Not for the first or last time, Anna insisted Lou let her take care of Morgen once and for all, but Lou always hesitated to agree. He wanted to believe that deep down, Morgen was still the person he fell in love with.

"I should've let you handle Morgen," Lou admitted as he put the picture in the suitcase. He quickly double checked all the locks, then got in his car and drove back to the hospital.


	5. Chapter 5

Morgen was furious. She kicked the machine a few times out of frustration. It hadn't worked. The plan was simple: capture Cole, extract his powers, transfer them into her. Easy. The ninja had interrupted the process, but surly some of his powers must have been extracted. Or so she thought. There was no trace of any power in the container. She stormed out of the room and went to the cell where she kept her prisoner.

"Your machine failed!" Morgen yelled, slamming open the door. Her prisoner bolted upright from the ledge she slept on. Morgan grabbed the vengestone chains and forced the prisoner to her feet.

"I-I'm sorry. Let me inspect it. Please. Perhaps it wasn't calibrated properly." The woman collapsed to her knees.

"You will fix it only after you've been punished for your failure." Morgen grabbed the modified Taser she had mounted onto a long pole that she kept on the wall and turned it on. Electricity arched between the two metal points. She turned it onto level eight of ten and shocked the prisoner a few times, holding it against her bare skin longer than necessary. The woman's screams did nothing to deter Morgen. Thirty minutes later, Morgen put the Taser back on its hook.

"There. Now, use your technical know-how to fix it, or next time I turn it onto high." Morgen dragged her prisoner by the hair into the room with the machine and locked her in.

The woman cried some as she knelt down next to the machine. What Morgen wanted was impossible. She had only heard of one Elemental Master losing his powers, and he had willingly given them to someone else. To this day, she had no idea why the old Master of Ice had acted the way he did or how he did it, but she prayed the new Master of Ice was safe from whatever the old Master was running from.

She brushed her once wavy blonde hair out of her face. She had a rudimentary understanding of mechanics, and she guessed that was why she was targeted instead of someone like the Master of Metal, or literally any engineer in all of Ninjago. She had used her elemental power in the past to muddle through any electrical or mechanical stuff, and ever since she lost it, she just wasn't as good as she used to be. Not that she dared let Morgen know she had lost her power. She didn't want to endanger her son, wherever he might be. Every day, she prayed her husband was able to provide for and protect their son. She had no idea how old he was now, but in her mind, she envisioned a younger version of Cliff only with lightning shooting out of his hands. She hoped her boys were safe.

* * *

Cliff knew something was wrong when Libby didn't come home that night. She had expressed concern over Elemental Masters disappearing. First, the Master of Ice disappeared years ago. Then last year, the Master of Earth disappeared. A few months ago, she learned that the Masters of Fire and Water had vanished from their home, leaving behind their two young children. She told Cliff the legend of the Master of Wind and how he disappeared one day never to be seen again. Even the Master of Amber was rumored to have died. Now Libby had gone missing.

Cliff immediately contacted the police, who started a search for her. After two weeks of looking with no result, they called it off. Cliff was worried. Libby had told him she had lost her elemental power after their son had been born. He realized that if whoever took Libby figured out she no longer had her power, they might go after her son.

That night, after midnight, Cliff placed his one-year-old sleeping son in the car and drove away. He drove and drove, looking for somewhere safe he could leave the boy. An orphanage was too obvious, and he didn't want his child growing up in a cruel place like that. No, he wanted a kind family to raise his son.

It was nearly dawn when he happened upon a junkyard far away from Ninjago City. He turned around and looked at his son, who was still asleep. He was out of options. He quickly scribbled a note on some scrap paper he found and wrapped it around a spare key to the house. He stuck the note and the key into the boy's pocket before picking him up and carefully leaving him on the step. He kissed the boy's forehead and drove off.

It wasn't long before the child woke up, saw where he was, and started to cry. His sobs alerted the middle-aged couple inside, who came out to investigate. The woman comforted him and gave him some pancakes while her husband read the note for the hundredth time.

"As long as he is with me, he is in danger. I cannot raise him knowing he could be harmed. Please watch after him. The key is to my house. Give it to him if he ever questions where he came from. If I can, I will return for him. His name is Jay."

Years passed, and Cliff watched the boy grow up from afar. He saw Libby's spirit in him, and he had her good looks. He was proud of everything his son accomplished. He wished he could enter into his son's life again, but he knew as long as Libby was missing that wasn't an option. He never stopped looking for her, and he died before he found her.


	6. Chapter 6

A week passed and there was no improvement in Cole's condition. Lou used his family name and status to control who was allowed to enter Cole's room at any given time. He made sure there were at least two MPs outside the door at all times, everyone- medical staff included- needed their ID checked before they could enter the room, and he restricted how long people were allowed to visit. He understood that the ninja wanted to see Cole and make sure he was still alive, but he would not take any chance of another attack from Morgen. The ninja were concerned about their friend, and Lou's behavior was not helping. They asked Wu to help.

Wu and Misako eventually wore Lou down enough to where he agreed to meet the team for lunch one day at a nearby restaurant, their treat. He could even pick the restaurant. He was reluctant to leave Cole, but Zane reassured him that he could hack the hospital equipment hooked up to Cole and would tell Lou if anything changed. As Lou left the hospital, he didn't want to admit that he was tired of camping out in the tiny room, but the sunshine felt good on his face. He decided he wouldn't care if someone recognized him, and he would try to enjoy this meal with his son's friends.

He entered the restaurant and quickly saw the ninja sitting at a table in the back corner. Quietly, he sat down in the empty chair at the end of the table, hoping he wouldn't distract them. He did. They immediately bombarded him with questions about Cole.

"There's no change," Lou said, sipping the water they had ordered him.

"I told them I was able to remotely monitor Cole's condition," Zane said. Lou eyed the nindroid, not quite sure how he felt about that, but said nothing.

"We know, Zane. We just want to make sure nothing has changed," Kai said.

"If something had changed, I would have told you."

"Lou, thank you for joining us. We wanted to discuss something with you," Misako said, stopping any squabbling between the ninja.

"What do you want to discuss?" Lou asked.

"Cole's mother."

"There's really not much to say." Lou shifted in his seat.

"Then why did that woman claim to be his mother?" Kai demanded.

"Yeah, I thought his mother died years ago," Jay commented. Everyone murmured their agreement.

"Morgen and I have a complicated history. Let's leave it at that." Lou hoped they would drop the subject, but knew they wouldn't.

"We need more than that. What does she have against Cole? Is she his mother?" Kai asked, pounding his fist on the table.

"I know you want to protect him, but so do we, and we can't do that if you keep us in the dark," Lloyd said.

"I can't tell you what I haven't been able to tell him. He's asked about his real mother plenty of times over the years, but I just told him she wasn't worth knowing," Lou admitted.

"Real mother?" Nya asked.

"… Yes. I, uh, I divorced my first wife." Lou glanced around the restaurant. Divorce was not a common thing in Ninjago, and everyone ridiculed him for it, even complete strangers who just read about it on the cover of a magazine. The facts did not matter. He was called names, he nearly lost his job, he was accused of being abusive, and someone- he still didn't know who- had called CPS at some point and Cole was nearly taken away and put into a foster home. Thankfully, Anna was there that day and threatened to get her lawyer brother involved if they merely took someone's anonymous word on the matter and didn't properly investigate. It took a year, but eventually, the divorce was finalized, and that still did not stop the prejudice. His family and friends insisted right up until about ten minutes before he married Anna that whatever he and Morgen were going through could be worked out. His marriage to Anna stopped most of the hate, but to this day, if someone found out he had divorced Morgen twenty years ago, they would still ridicule him. The one saving grace in the whole situation was Cole was too young to understand what was going on at the time. Cole was bullied a bit by the other military kids for having a step-mother, but that stopped once they moved and Cole was better able to hide the fact he had a step-mother.

"Why?" Lloyd asked.

"The long and short of it is she stabbed me."

"Is that the only reason?" Wu asked.

"That's all you need to know," Lou said, eying the old man with the long, white beard and wearing a bamboo hat. He thought back to that day and wondered…

"In most divorce cases, if there are children involved, the mother usually gets custody. Yet Cole grew up with you. Tell me, why did Morgen not get custody of Cole?" Zane asked.

"It's hard to get custody if no one knows where you are," Lou muttered so no one would hear him.

"What?"

"Look, we want to go after Morgen and make her pay for what she did to Cole. Can you tell us anything that might help us stop her? What's she like?" Kai asked.

"… If you guys want to go after Morgen, that's fine by me, but I'm not going to sit here and play twenty questions with you. Just don't underestimate her. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my son. Miss?" Lou flagged down a waitress.

"Lou, please," Nya pleaded.

"Put all this on my card." Lou handed her his credit card.

"Of course, Mr. Burtchenelli." The waitress rushed off.

"Burtchenelli? Like the family that owns half of, well, Ninjago?" Kai asked.

"The Burtchenellis are a famous Mafia crime family," Zane said.

"We are not the Mob. Anymore. Cole never told you our last name?" Lou stood up.

"No. He just said it was hard to pronounce," Jay said.

"It is, apparently. Most people end up saying Burton. But I don't blame Cole for not telling you."

"Why not?" Nya asked.

"Because our name comes with assumptions. Your friend just said we were the Mob. We aren't. Anymore."

"Half the places in Ninjago City are named after the Burtchenelli family! Heck, half the places in Ninjago are named after the Burtchenellis! Burtchenelli Square, Burtchenelli Park, the Burtchenelli office complex, Burtchenelli Avenue, Burtchenelli Way, Burtchenelli Street, the Burtchenelli hotel chain-" Jay shut up and glared at Kai, who had elbowed him in the gut.

"Yes, having a Burtchenelli as a business partner, or investor, or the face of a group, or involved in any way is often a good idea if you want your business to succeed." Lou was glad when he saw the waitress returning with his card and receipt. Despite everyone's pleas, Lou gathered his things and left the restaurant.

"Great. Now what?" Kai asked.

"Um, Lou did not turn to go back to the hospital." Zane pointed out the window where Lou was walking down the street. The ninja quickly jumped up to follow.

Making sure they weren't seen, they watched as Lou cut through Burtchenelli Plaza and made his way to the outskirts of the city. It wasn't long before he turned and went into a cemetery. Zane took note of which grave he visited as the ninja hid outside the gate. Once Lou left twenty minutes later, they made their way to the grave. It had tulips planted on it. They silently read the gravestone.

"Lt. Col. Anna Marie Lavinsky-Burtchenelli. Beloved Daughter, Wife, Mother, and Friend."


	7. Chapter 7

"Hello? Anyone here?" Skylor checked her texts to make sure she hadn't arrived early. Nope. Kai told her to come to the monastery at seven with food. It was five past and she couldn't find anyone. She wandered into the kitchen, where Misako was cleaning the counters.

"Hello, Skylor. Thank you for bringing dinner," Misako said.

"You're welcome. Where is everyone?" Skylor placed the bags of food on the table.

"Wu is meditating. Everyone else is in Cole's room. They've been in there all day. I guess it's their way of coping."

"Still no change?"

"No. Misako quickly brought Skylor up to speed. Skylor had questions, but Misako couldn't answer most of them, so she went looking for the rest of the ninja. Like Misako said, everyone was in Cole's room. She looked around. She never would have guessed Cole was a neat freak, based on the lack of dust, the neatly made bed, and everything was more or less in its place.

The ninja were sitting on the ground in the middle of the room. Zane was flipping through a photo album, Nya was on her laptop, Kai was rummaging through Cole's desk, Lloyd was looking through the books on the shelf, and Jay was on the phone telling his mother that the wedding that was supposed to happen in two weeks was postponed until further notice. Skylor cleared her throat.

"Skylor!" Kai jumped up and went over to her.

"Hey. I brought you guys some dinner."

"Thank you."

"Misako told me a little bit about Cole, and I have some questions."

"We all do," Lloyd said.

"I've been reading old newspaper and magazine articles, and I can't find much on Morgen. Though Lou apparently was a horrible, abusive husband and father, Morgen left him, he bribed the judge for custody of Cole, Anna was his mistress, but they did have the wedding of the century, except it was awful because multiple people ended up in the hospital, including Lou and Anna, Anna was cruel to Cole and beat him, she cheated on Lou several times, Lou cheated on her several times, I lost track of how many times she was supposedly pregnant, and this source claims Cole is not even Lou's child," Nya said, rubbing her forehead.

"Wow. I know divorce isn't common, and the media likes to stretch the truth, but wow," Skylor said.

"It's because he's a Burtchenelli," Jay said, hanging up the phone.

"Burtchenelli? Like the helicopter pilot who died a few years ago?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah. I remember the name because in my eleven-year-old mind, I thought everyone was saying, 'Burnt Cannoli.' I thought that was the name of the pilot who died, and I even asked my dad why someone would name their daughter Burnt, since it didn't make any sense to me."

"Yeah, he's a Burtchenelli. And get this: his real mother is still alive!" Jay plopped down on the bed.

"Misako told me, but that's crazy. Does Cole know?"

"We don't know what he knows," Lloyd admitted.

"That's nothing. Would you have guessed Cole was a military brat?" Kai held up some dog tags for her to see.

"Seriously?"

"Yes. There are several pictures of Cole, Lou, and Anna in here where Anna is in her uniform," Zane said. Skylor took the book from him to see for herself

One of the first pictures was of Anna and a one-year-old Cole. Anna was in her uniform. The following pictures had various combinations of Anna, Lou, and Cole, and Anna was always in one of her military uniforms. The next set of pictures was of Lou and Anna's wedding. After the wedding, Cole almost always had at least one black eye and a cast on some part of his body. They soon got to pictures of the family moving to a new house. Anna stopped wearing her uniforms, and Cole didn't have any more black eyes or broken bones. There was a picture of a very unhappy Cole dressed in a suit that had red sequins on the lapel, a red sequin cummerbund, and a red bowtie.

"What in the world is this?" Skylor asked, trying not to laugh.

The next picture was of Cole in the hospital with a broken arm, a broken nose, and looking like he could kill his dad, who was presumably behind the camera. Anna was next to him, dressed up slightly, holding his good hand, and looking exhausted and slightly annoyed.

"We think that was when Lou made Cole do the Triple Tiger Sashay. Cole told us he fell, but he didn't say he ended up in the hospital," Kai explained to Skylor.

From there, the pictures changed to Anna and Cole sitting in a helicopter when he was slightly older. Cole looked extremely excited, and Anna was smiling and watching Cole. There were some pictures of Anna working at a desk. After Cole's thirteenth birthday, the pictures stopped. There were five or six pages left blank at the end of the album. Skylor handed the album back to Zane.

"Look at this." Lloyd held up some DVDs that had been hidden behind some books on the top shelf. One was labeled "Lou Confession," another had "PYND Air Show" written on it, and the third one said, "Wedding Highlights." They quickly popped the "Lou Confession" DVD into the player on Nya's laptop.

"Maybe this will give us some insight into Morgen," Lloyd hoped as everyone gathered around to watch.

Lou was standing in a dimly lit room against an off-white wall. He was dressed up, but he looked tired and annoyed.

"Alright, Lou, why are we in the hospital at three in the morning?" Anna asked from behind the camera.

"Cole had a recital this afternoon…" Lou sighed.

"Yes. And what did you do?"

"I… suggested to the group that they should add in some flare… and attempt the Triple Tiger Sashay," Lou mumbled. He looked like he wanted the floor to eat him.

"Suggested or forced?" Anna asked.

"Uh… I feel like I need a lawyer present. Can I call your brother?"

"No. What happened as a result of Cole attempting this incredibly dangerous move?"

"… He fell into the orchestra pit and landed on the snare drum." Lou was clearly uncomfortable as he answered the questions.

"And what are his injuries?"

"He broke his arm, broke his nose, cracked two ribs, sprained his ankle, and he has a concussion."

"Yes. So, Lou, what will you never, ever do again?"

"I will never suggest he do a difficult and possibly dangerous stunt like that again."

"What do you say?"

"I'm sorry, Cole." Lou looked off camera, presumably to where Cole was.

"And?"

"And?" Lou looked confused. They could only imagine what Anna was doing behind the camera.

"… You were right, Anna, I was wrong," Lou said through gritted teeth. The camera panned over to where a seven-year-old Cole sat in a hospital bed, looking incredibly annoyed.

"There. Feel better?" Anna asked.

"Not really," Cole said.

"Aww. What if I say you never have to take another dance class in your life?"

"A little bit." Cole looked pathetically at her.

"Good. Get some rest now, lad. You'll feel better in the morning."

The video ended. The ninja looked at each other.

"That was it?" Jay asked.

"How are we supposed to find out anything about Morgen? It's like she disappeared off the face of the planet." Nya huffed.

"We don't. We storm the cave, capture her, and make her tell us what she did to Cole so we can fix him," Kai said.

"We need a plan, Kai." Lloyd crossed his arms. He caught sight of Skylor and stared at her for a while.

"Uh, Lloyd? You're kind of making me uncomfortable," Skylor said after a moment.

"You absorb other people's powers. You have all of our powers, right? Including Cole's powers?"

"Yes?" Skylor looked at Kai, who seemed just as confused as she was.

"Morgen wants Cole's power. You copied Cole's power. What if we make Morgen think Cole gave his power to Skylor?"

"You want to use my girlfriend as bait?" Kai demanded.

"Do you have a better idea?" Lloyd asked.

"… No."

"Skylor?" Everyone looked at her.

"Yeah, there's just one problem: I have no idea how to use Cole's power."


	8. Chapter 8

Anna loved her time with Cole. Currently, he was telling her about his friends. She loved that he had actually made friends. He had struggled with that growing up. The kids on the base had beaten him up every chance they got, resulting in many trips to the urgent care on base and the hospital that was five minutes outside the gate, and Cole had more or less given up on making friends by the time they moved to Ninjago City. The way Cole talked about them, she thought she knew the other ninja personally. She wished she could meet them and thank them for being Cole's friends. Cole told her about how Jay and Nya were supposed to get married in a couple of weeks, and he was Jay's best man. She was thankful that he was comfortable talking to her about pretty much anything. There was a time long ago when she thought he might never like her. Back then, she and Lou didn't think Morgen leaving would affect Cole the way it did. They didn't know it would lead to a fear of abandonment that never fully went away. She wished she had seen the signs and hadn't written it off as typical kid behavior.

* * *

Cole was not happy with the idea of getting a new mother. Even though Anna was always around, Cole wasn't that close with her, but as soon as Lou tried to explain that Anna would soon live with them and things were going to change, his attitude towards her changed. The daycare workers told Lou Cole was acting up more than usual and was starting to negatively influence the other children. He started avoiding Anna when she came over. If she tried to take him out and do stuff with him, he would throw a temper tantrum. She didn't fully blame him. After all, he was only three years old and didn't know any other way to express himself.

What Lou and Anna didn't know was that the daycare workers and some of the other parents would talk about Cole in front of him like he wasn't there. They didn't realize that while he played, he heard every single word they were saying. They said horrible things about Lou and Anna, they speculated where his real mother was, and they joked about why she left. He heard the gossip. Some of the other kids said Lou would forget about Cole once he and Anna married and had children of their own. One parent even asked Cole if he knew Anna wasn't his real mother.

Things got worse when they started packing up the house to move. Cole became extremely clingy to Lou and mean to Anna. A week or so before the wedding, Cole was being a brat, so Lou sent him to his room. After five or so minutes, Lou went up to talk to him. Anna followed a few minutes later and overheard some of their talk.

"Where's my real mommy?" Cole asked for the first time.

"She left when you were a baby," Lou explained, clearly not expecting that question for another few years.

"Why?"

"I'll explain when you're older." Lou glanced up and caught Anna's eye. She sighed, knowing she had a long road ahead of her to win Cole's trust.

The ceremony went off without a hitch. The reception started off really fun. The photographers went around and got some shots of the new family, there was a pasta bar for food, and of course, the dancing. The father-daughter dance was beautiful, and Anna took Cole to the back of the reception hall, away from anything fragile, and spun him around during the four-minute long mother-son dance. He loved it, and she was glad she got him to smile, but she had to rest for a few minutes before her and Lou's first dance.

A couple of hours into the reception, though, Cole became extremely bored. He ran around, looking for something to do. To make things worse, some of his older cousins were tormenting him. Zach, Cole's seven-year-old cousin, was the worst. Cole tried to walk away, but Zach just followed him. When Lou and Anna were cutting the cake, Zach pushed Cole down. Cole tripped over a power cord for one of the cameras and landed on a shattered glass someone had dropped earlier. Silently, and without shedding a tear, Cole walked over to his dad and tugged on Lou's pants leg.

"Zach pushed me," Cole said, holding out his hand that had a three-inch shard of glass sticking out of his palm. Lou tried to wrap Cole's hand while Anna quickly changed, but Cole jerked his hand away when Lou touched the glass. Cole didn't make a sound the whole ride to the ER, and he didn't cry when the nurse gave him something to numb his arm. He did scream at the top of his lungs, though, when the doctor tried to pull the glass out before he was fully numb. A few hours later, Cole was dropped off at Lou's father's house, and after a tearful goodbye, Lou and Anna got a late start on their honeymoon.

Two months after the wedding, Cole was still acting up. He was starting to calm down some, but he was perpetually grumpy. He hadn't adjusted to the move well, evidenced by the fact he clung to Lou. On top of that, the kids in the playgroup Lou and Anna put him in refused to play with him when they weren't picking on him. The mothers did nothing since they were too busy gossiping. Lou and Anna wondered if Cole would ever make friends.

Anna was shocked when she found out she was pregnant. She and Lou hadn't really been trying, and she had hoped to wait a year or two when she was closer to retirement. She had already decided that twelve years of service were enough, and when this set of four years were up, she would not reenlist. When her pregnancy was confirmed, she was placed on modified assignment, which she hated. Nevertheless, she decided to make the most of the situation and enjoyed an extra day and a half at home each week with Cole. He liked not going to the playgroup as often.

One night, when Anna was about eight weeks, she woke up to a stabbing pain in her abdomen. She adjusted her position, but it didn't go away. She knew something wasn't right. She had to practically shove Lou out of the bed to wake him up. There was blood all over her side of the bed. Lou got a neighbor to watch Cole while they went to the hospital.

Cole was confused when Lou and Anna weren't in their room. He always went into their room when "Reveille" played at six, and they were always in there. Except for today. He went downstairs and saw his neighbor asleep on the couch. He watched her from the stairs until she woke up. She tried to engage him, but he refused to play along. She was eventually able to get him to sit down to breakfast with the promise of chocolate chip pancakes with extra chocolate chips on the side. After breakfast, he stood on the couch and stared out the window. Around one in the afternoon, Benny, Lou's older brother, came by to pick up Cole.

"Uncle Benny! Where's Daddy and Anna?" Cole asked as he opened the door.

"They're at the hospital. Go get dressed and I'll take you to see them."

Cole ran upstairs to get dressed and Benny followed. He grabbed some extra clothes for Cole and put them in a bag. Once Cole was ready, Benny loaded him up into one of the car seats in his wife's car and drove to the hospital. Anna was asleep in the bed, and Lou was reading a book when they entered.

"Daddy!" Cole ran over and climbed up in Lou's lap.

"Shh. We don't want to wake Anna up," Lou whispered.

"What happened?" Benny asked.

"Anna… She… she had a miscarriage last night. Something went wrong, though. They don't know why, but she kept hemorrhaging. It got so bad, to save her life, they did an emergency hysterectomy," Lou sighed. Outside of her superiors and doctors, no one knew about the pregnancy yet. He dreaded the thought of having to tell friends and family about it when they found out she was in the hospital.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"I… I would not be surprised if she-who-shall-not-be-named was somehow involved."

"How?"

"I don't know," Lou admitted.

Benny took Cole home with him, despite Cole's pleas, whining, and tantrum. Anna went home a few days later, but Lou begged Benny to keep Cole for the rest of the week. When Cole did finally return home, he had bruises, cuts, and a black eye from his many fights with Zach.

Lou returned to work the following Monday. Anna's parents were there to help out, and he had warned Cole to be gentle around Anna, so he felt comfortable leaving them alone for a few hours.

Anna felt numb. She hadn't known how much she wanted a child of her own, and now she would never get the chance. She couldn't cry, she was out of tears, so she ended up staring blankly at the wall. Cole came in to see if she was still sad, and she let him watch TV in her bedroom, something not normally allowed. As she watched him watch TV, she didn't understand how Morgen was able to walk away from her child the way she did. She wondered if Morgen regretted her decision, if she ever yearned to know Cole. Anna gently pulled Cole closer so she could snuggle with him. She felt better holding him.

"When will Daddy be back?" Cole asked.

"At dinnertime. He always comes back, so do I. We will never leave you forever, Cole. We love you," Anna whispered, stroking his hair. Cole didn't say anything.

While Anna was home recovering, Cole behaved pretty well. He sat on the bed with her and watched a lot of TV. He occasionally brought her books to read to him. She heard all of the adventures of Evan, the giant, invisible termite that lived under Cole's bed. After several weeks, she was ready to return to work. Cole held her hand tight as they walked up to the house where the playgroup was. He asked to stay home, but Anna told him he was too young to stay home alone.

"Will you come back?" Cole asked.

"Always."


	9. Chapter 9

Skylor closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This time, she would do it. She stared at the rock in her hand and willed it to move. Nothing. She threw the rock down in frustration. It was hopeless. She walked back to the monastery for some water.

"How's it going?" Kai asked.

"It's not," Skylor mumbled.

"No?"

"I don't think this plan will work. I've never understood what you can do with Earth. With Fire, you can light a path or destroy buildings. With Lightning, you can zap people. With Ice, you can freeze things. What are you supposed to do with Earth? Throw rocks at people? I can do that without powers, thank you very much."

"I don't know. Cole can move the ground. He can make walls of rock appear from nowhere. He can cause earthquakes. He's also got that super strength going for him."

"Newsflash: I'm not Cole. I wish I could talk to him, though, and ask him for some advice and figure out how to do this."

"I wish I could talk to him, period," Kai sighed.

"I'm sorry, Kai." Skylor placed a hand on his shoulder.

Kai didn't say anything. He couldn't. It had been two weeks, and Cole was still comatose. Every day he didn't wake up, the odds of him ever waking went down, as Zane constantly pointed out. Kai wanted to scream at Cole and force him to wake up. He wanted to throttle Morgen's neck for what she did to her own son.

"Kai?"

"Sorry, Skylor. I just… I feel so useless. The others do too, I'm sure. When we go after Morgen, it has to work. Even if Cole… We have to get Morgen. That's all that matters." Kai couldn't admit that Cole most likely wouldn't wake up. If he did, that was like admitting defeat. The eight percent chance of him waking up is what kept Kai going, and maybe getting Morgen and finding out exactly what she did to him would uncover a cure.

"I know, and I want to help. I want to do this for Cole, but I need a teacher. I wish my mother was still around. Earth was one of the first elements she copied and mastered. At least, that's what Dad told me. He said she was almost as good as Hermes."

"Who's Hermes?"

"The Master of Earth when Dad caused the Serpentine War."

"… Is he still alive? Maybe he could teach you?"

"I don't know. Dad hasn't seen him since the War."

"Maybe Master Wu knows?"

"Maybe I know what?" Wu asked as he walked into the kitchen, stroking his beard.

"If Hermes is still alive?" Skylor asked.

"Hermes? I do not know. I have not spoken to him in nearly twenty years," Wu admitted.

"Why not?" Kai asked.

"That is a question for him. Now, both of you should be outside training. If you want to subdue Morgen, you must be at peak performance. She will not be easy to defeat." Wu turned on his heel and left.

Kai and Skylor went out into the courtyard where the others were halfheartedly training. Skylor stared at the pile of sand in the corner and sighed. She was never going to be able to manipulate it.

"Skylor?" Lloyd asked. Sensing her doubt, he walked over to her.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd. I can't do it. I've tried, but I can't access Cole's power." Skylor couldn't look at the team.

"Are you sure you copied his power?" Jay asked.

"Yes. I've copied all of your powers, and I can access all of them, except for Earth. I don't know how to access it." Skylor demonstrated her ability to use Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, and even Lloyd's Green Energy, though it was nowhere near as powerful as his. But when she tried to manipulate the sand pile, nothing happened.

"Master Wu told us the key to unlocking our powers was to unlock what was holding us back in our hearts. Perhaps there is something holding you back from unlocking your ability to use Earth?" Zane asked.

"I don't know. I can use every other element just fine."

"What if we found Hermes and got him to teach you?" Kai asked.

"Who's Hermes?" Nya asked.

"A former Master of Earth. He fought in the Serpentine War. We don't even know if he's still alive. We've already asked Wu about it, and he doesn't know either," Skylor explained.

"I bet Lou knows," Lloyd said. Everyone stared at him.

"Lou?" Jay asked.

"Yeah. Elemental powers are passed down from parent to child. We know Morgen wanted Cole's powers for herself. He didn't say it, but I'm willing to bet she wants her powers back. Powers she inherited from her father, who is most likely Hermes. Lou might know where we can find Hermes, if he's still alive."

"But would he tell us?" Kai asked.

"I guess there's only one way to find out," Skylor said.

"Even if he does, and that's a big if, and you find Hermes, and he is Morgen's father, what are you going to do? Go up and ask him to teach Skylor how to use Earth? How do you know he would help you?" Nya pointed out.

"We don't. It's called faith, Nya. And for Cole, we have to try," Lloyd said.

"Besides, how many Hermes could there possibly be in Ninjago?" Jay asked.

The answer was one thousand, five hundred and seventy-two. Two thousand, three hundred and four if you included middle names. Even after Zane threw out everyone who was too young to be Hermes, they were still left with over twelve hundred names. Checking them all would take months. They asked Wu if he knew Hermes last name, but he did not. Reluctantly, the ninja drew straws to see who would ask Lou for information on Hermes.


	10. Chapter 10

Jay and Lloyd walked into the hospital room. Cole was lying on his right side. Even though his eyes were semi-open, they knew he couldn't see them. Lou was reading a newspaper, but he looked up when he heard them enter.

"I wanted to let you know, we have a plan," Lloyd said before Lou could say anything.

"Oh?" Lou put the paper down and gave them his full attention.

"Yes. I know you're angry with her, but it really would be useful if you could tell us about Morgen."

"We were married for five years, and we were together for three years before that. And I have spent the past twenty years trying to forget," Lou sighed. He looked down at his empty ring finger.

"But to throw away an eight-year relationship overnight?" Jay asked.

"She went nuts. I don't know what happened, it was like a switch was flipped in her brain. I tried to talk to her. I wanted to understand why she stabbed me and… She told me where I could shove it in no uncertain terms. Then she disappeared. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea where she was or if she was even still alive. The only good thing to come out of that relationship was Cole." Lou stroked Cole's hair.

"So you aren't going to tell us anything else about her?" Lloyd asked.

"No. I never told Cole the whole truth, how can I tell you?"

"Fine. Does the name Hermes mean anything to you?"

Lou flinched at the name.

"I guess that's a yes?" Jay asked.

"Trust me, you don't want to get involved with the likes of Hermes," Lou said.

"Why not?" Lloyd asked.

"First of all, he never liked me. Second, when he found out Morgen and I were getting a divorce, he broke into my house and demanded to know why. He didn't like my answer and took it out on my stuff. Long story short, he got to spend the night in jail and I haven't seen him or Kelly since. Thankfully, my mother had taken Cole out when everything was going down, so neither of them have met Cole."

"Don't they have a right to meet their grandson?" Jay asked.

"No."

"Oh come on, Lou. We need someone to teach Skylor how to use Earth. Cole's out, so Hermes is our only option."

"I doubt he will. I didn't even know he or Morgen had elemental powers. I didn't know elemental powers existed until Cole started glowing. Even after everything, she refused to tell me." Lou looked at the ground, trying not to think about the woman he once loved.

* * *

A week after the attack, Lou was back home. His parents were staying with him to help out until he was back on his feet. He hated how his mother fussed over him, but he admitted he needed help with Cole. He got his parents to move Cole's bassinet into his room. Lou was pretending to watch TV, but really he was watching Cole sleep on the bed next to him. He subconsciously fiddled with his wedding ring. He jolted when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

There was silence.

"Hello?" Lou repeated.

"Don't hang up." The voice was small and emotional, but Lou recognized it instantly.

"Morgen?"

"I'm sorry you were hurt, Lou. I'm so sorry. You weren't supposed to be there." Morgen sounded like she was crying.

"Morgen, what is going on?" Lou sat up slightly, though the stitches in his stomach prevented him from moving too much.

"I… I can't tell you. You wouldn't understand."

"You can't tell me?" Lou scoffed.

"Lou, please. You said you would love me no matter what."

"That was before you tried to kill our son."

"I have to! If I don't, he'll… he'll…" Morgen broke off in a sob, but Lou wasn't buying it. He couldn't.

"He'll what, Morgen?"

"What's inside of him, it doesn't belong to him. It will kill him if I don't!"

"What are you talking about? What's inside him?" Lou looked over where Cole was still asleep.

"The power."

"… You need help, Morgen."

"No, I don't!" Morgen screeched.

"Yes, you do. Please, come back and get some professional help. I won't judge. I want to help you."

"If you really wanted to help, you would let me kill that beast! He's a monster! A liar and a thief!" Morgen yelled, suddenly not crying anymore.

"He's less than two weeks old. What could he have possibly done?"

"You'll see, you'll all see! You can take your pleas for me to stop and stick 'em where the sun don't shine. One day, he'll show you his true colors, and you won't like what you see. And you'll know that I was always right about him."

"No. I refuse to believe that. And until you get professional help, you aren't getting within a hundred miles of him."

"Like you think you can stop me."

"I can try. Starting by filing for divorce. I'll see you in court."

"No. You won't. You'll never see me again." The line went dead.

"Morgen?" Lou sighed and hung up the phone. He picked up Cole, careful not to move the infant's broken arm too much. He wrote off what Morgen said. She was certifiably crazy, there was no way what she was talking about, whatever it was, was true. Eventually, Lou forgot all about that conversation.

Until fifteen years later, when he heard Cole talking about stealing the Blade Cup with his friends. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had Morgen been right? Was Cole destined to become nothing more than a liar and a thief? When Cole said he was a ninja, Lou had to get away. He pushed the conversation out of his mind. He knew Cole had run away from the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts, since the school had called him to tell him Cole was missing. He hadn't wanted to send Cole away, but he felt like he couldn't protect Cole from Morgen after Anna's death. After the school called, he reluctantly decided to let Cole go down his own path and hoped beyond hope Morgen was wrong. It looked like he was the one who was wrong.

Lou was all set to go home when he heard the music on stage. Curiosity got the better of him and he cracked the auditorium door open and saw snakes going after the Blade Cup. The ninja fought back. Lou watched them fight. Fight and win. He ran backstage. He knew he needed to have a long talk with Cole. Pythor tried to stop them, tried to kill Lou. Lou was sure he was dead, until he saw a bright light lift up the heavy stage lights off him. He couldn't believe his eyes when he realized it was Cole who was glowing.

Back at the house, the ninja explained elemental powers to him. As they talked, Lou realized that Morgen must have had the same powers, but lost them when Cole was born. That must've been why she didn't want any children. When the ninja left, Lou watched them go, confident that Cole could handle his own if Morgen ever attacked him again.


	11. Chapter 11

Lou didn't realize it, but he gave the ninja a big clue as to which Hermes was the one they were looking for. Twenty-two men named Hermes had a wife with Kelly as her first or middle name. They walked up to the house of Hermes number fourteen. It was a tiny house outside of Jamanakai Village that looked like it could fall down at any moment. There couldn't have been more than four rooms inside, and even that seemed like a generous guess. Garden gnomes littered the yard. An old woman sat knitting on the porch, but she looked up when the group approached.

"Excuse me, but we're looking for a Hermes Knight. Is he here?" Lloyd asked.

"Hermes! Some kids are trying to sell us magazines again!"

"No, we don't want to sell you magazines. We're trying to locate the old Master of Earth. We know his name is Hermes, and we know he had a daughter named Morgen who married Lou Burtchenelli," Kai said.

The woman stared at them. The door slammed open. A tall man with messy white hair wearing a gray tank top and jeans stormed onto the porch. He was carrying a baseball bat.

"You have three seconds to get off my property!" Hermes glared at them, tapping the bat in his hand.

"Please, just hear us out. We're here about your daughter!" Lloyd pleaded, raising his hands as if he was surrendering. The others followed his lead.

Hermes looked at his wife.

"They know about Morgen," Kelly told her husband.

"Alright, speak," Hermes spat.

"You were the Master of Earth," Skylor said.

"That was a long time ago. Morgen is the Master of Earth now."

"No, she's not. Her son is," Kai said, lowering his arms.

"What son?" Hermes looked at Kelly in confusion.

"Morgen told me the child didn't survive. She told me Lou beat her and made her lose the baby," Kelly said.

"Oh please. Lou couldn't hurt a fly," Nya scoffed.

"His name is Cole, he's twenty years old, and he is the current Master of Earth," Zane said.

"He's also in critical condition. Morgen tried to take his powers from him, and now he's in a coma," Lloyd added.

Hermes and Kelly looked at each other, not sure what to say. Hermes lowered the bat slightly.

"I don't know what Morgen told you, but we're telling you the truth. We want to bring Morgen in, but we need help. I'm the Master of Amber, and I copied Cole's power a few years ago, but I've never used it. I don't know how. I need a teacher," Skylor explained.

"Morgen's child… is alive?" Kelly whispered to Hermes.

"Yes, and we need your help to save him," Kai pleaded.

"How can we trust you? How do we know that punk didn't send you to mess with us?" Hermes demanded. He pointed the bat at the group.

"Punk?" Jay asked.

"That no good Burtchenelli kid."

"Are you talking about Lou? 'Cause I'm pretty sure he was born with that bowtie on."

"Bowtie? Kid had a mullet when I knew him."

"Herm, that was over twenty-five years ago," Kelly said softly.

The ninja looked at each other, trying to picture Lou with a mullet. They couldn't. Lou was way too sophisticated to do anything like that. No one knew what to say.

"Just get off my property!" Hermes grabbed Kelly's arm and dragged her inside before slamming the door shut.

* * *

They could hear the shouting as soon as they stepped off the elevator. The ninja had been called to help stop a disturbance. They ran towards the sound and couldn't believe what they saw. Lou and Hermes were shouting over each other, and the MPs and security were trying to keep the two apart.

"What's going on?" Lloyd asked, but he was drowned out by all the shouting.

The ninja worked to separate the two men. Kai, Jay, and Skylor managed to get Lou back inside Cole's room while the others slowly escorted Hermes to the waiting room downstairs.

"Lou," Kai started.

"No! Stop! Just stop! This is all your fault! How could you go to him?! I told you not to go to him!" Lou screamed, pacing in front of them.

"But-" Jay started, but Lou interrupted him.

"You knew! You knew it was a trap! You knew, and you still let Cole walk into that cave! Now Hermes is going to go to Morgen and tell him that Cole is still alive! She's going to come here and finish what she started! And it's all going to be your fault! I don't want to see any of you near my son again!"

"No, we-"

"Get. Out. Now," Lou growled.

Defeated, the three ninja left the room. Once they closed the door behind them, Lou glanced over at Cole. He hadn't heard a thing and was still unconscious. Lou turned around and stared out the window. He couldn't look at his son. He fell to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. Two weeks' worth of emotions he had forced down came welling back up. He hadn't cried since Anna died, but since Cole couldn't see him, there was no need to hide the pain this time.

Downstairs, Kai, Skylor, and Jay joined the others, who were still trying to calm Hermes down. He stopped screaming when he saw their faces.

"What happened?" Lloyd asked.

"Lou… He blames us. I've never seen him that angry before. I didn't know he could get that angry," Kai said.

"He said none of us are allowed to see Cole," Jay said, sniffing.

"Oh, Jay," Nya said, hugging Jay, fighting back her own tears.

"… What exactly happened to Cole?" Hermes asked after a while.

No one could answer.

"… Morgen. She baited him into a trap. She tried to take his powers from him. She had him hooked up to this machine that did who knows what to him. And now, Cole is… Cole is dying." The words didn't feel right coming out of Lloyd's mouth. But they couldn't beat around the bush anymore. Everyone was silent.

"Miss Amber, let's go." Hermes turned and walked out of the hospital, a look of anger and determination on his face. The others ran to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" Skylor asked.

"To teach you how to move Earth."


	12. Chapter 12

Morgen paced impatiently. It was taking way too long. The machine should've been fixed by now. She wished she had some mechanical background so she could check Libby's work and make sure Libby was actually doing something. Libby had been at it for three weeks now, and she still didn't have the thing working. She noticed that when she stood over Libby and watched her work, Libby messed up a lot. If she wasn't around, Libby seemed to get more work done. At least, she had assumed Libby was working, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Madam Knight?"

Morgen turned. One of her minions dared to approach her.

"What is it?" Morgen demanded.

"Here is that information you requested." The minion handed her a folder full of papers. As Morgen flipped through the pages, her smile grew.

"You may go," Morgen said, closing the folder.

The minion bowed and hurried away. Morgen slammed the door open, making Libby jump and drop the tool in her hand.

"Enough." Morgen grabbed Libby's chains and dragged her away.

"I-It's not ready," Libby pleaded.

"I know. Clearly, you are incompetent, and my patience has worn thin. I'm going to bring in someone who knows what they're doing."

Libby cried as Morgen dragged her back to her cell.

"Shut up! You've had your chance. I'll deal with you after I've cleaned up your mess." Morgen slammed and locked the cell door as Libby wailed.

Morgen hoped this new person would actually know how to make her machine work. Libby was the fourth person to work on it, and she had tested it on many elemental masters, many of whom did not survive. In fact, she was running out of potential Guinea pigs. She went to her chambers and pulled out her list of all known elemental masters.

"Who's still out there? Let's see… Amber, deceased. Form, deceased. Mind, deceased. Wind, unknown. Gravity, deceased. Metal, known. Time, lost. Water, known… Water… That just might work." Morgen, papers in hand, stormed over to where her minions were waiting for their next orders.

"Madam Knight?" They stood to attention.

"I need more test subjects. Bring me the Masters of Fire and Water."

* * *

Libby couldn't sleep. She couldn't. She had no idea what Morgen had in mind for her, and it scared her. She feared Morgen would test the machine out on her.

She jumped when she heard movement outside her cell.

"Karlof said to take vengestone chain off! Karlof will crush heads like grapes!"

"Karlof will wait here until Madam Knight says so. Don't even think about trying to escape. Madam Knight has a special job for you. Do not disappoint her. You will regret it."

Libby heard a door slam shut, and laughing as the guards walked away. She heard Karlof yelling. He sounded like he was close to her. Were there other prisoners? It wouldn't surprise Libby if there were. She wondered just how many people Morgen had locked up in this cave system.

She couldn't sleep. She stared at the light that escaped into her cell from under the heavy metal door. She thought about her husband and son. The thought of potentially seeing them again is what kept her going. She knew Cliff would never stop looking for her. One day, he would find her and take her home. They would catch up on all their lost time together. She would get to see her son again. She wondered how old Jay was now. It was hard to keep track of time when you didn't even know if it was day or night at any given moment.

She remembered the last time she saw her boys. She wanted to check in on an old friend. She hadn't heard from the Master of Ice in months. It wasn't like him to not return her calls. She was worried. The man was like a father to her. After several failed attempts to contact him, she decided to go over to his house and make sure he was still alive. She told Cliff he could handle Jay for one day. Jay hadn't wanted to let her go, and it broke her heart when he looked at her like she had betrayed him. Still, she couldn't bring him today, and she knew Cliff would distract him as soon as she was gone.

The door was locked when she arrived. She knocked and rang the bell, but no one answered. Eventually, she decided to pick the lock. Once inside, she noticed everything was in disarray. Books and scrolls were scattered everywhere. She picked one up and leafed through it. It was one of Wu's books on transferring elemental powers to another person. There were various tea bags scattered on the coffee table. Tea bags from Mystaké's shop.

"Ice?" Libby went upstairs and found it just as empty. She made her way back downstairs. She was about to call the police when she heard a noise outside. She stealthily made her way outside and went around to the back of the house. There was a guy standing in the middle of the yard.

"Ah, Master of Lightning. I'm so glad you're here. Madam Knight will be pleased to make your acquaintance."

"What?" Libby turned when she sensed someone sneaking up behind her, but they held a rag over her mouth and nose. She struggled, but she felt herself growing weak. Everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

True to his word, Lou refused to let any of the ninja enter Cole's hospital room. They begged and pleaded, but he refused to budge. Wu tried to reason with him, but Lou simply added him to the list of people banned from the room. In a last ditch attempt, they sent Misako in to talk to Lou.

"Hello, Lou," Misako said as she stood in the doorway. The MPs eyed her suspiciously.

"What do you want?" Lou asked.

"May I come in?"

Lou nodded, setting his book down. The MPs allowed her to enter.

"I wanted to see how Cole was doing." Misako sat down in the chair on the other side of the bed.

"I thought Zane was remotely linked to the monitors," Lou said.

"He is. But they would feel better if they could see Cole with their own eyes."

"Hm."

"Have they told you about their plan?"

"Not really. I know they want to confront Morgen again."

"Yes. Hermes is training Skylor so she can master Earth, and they're going to try to trick Morgen into thinking Cole gave his powers to her."

"Is that even possible?" Lou asked.

"Elemental powers are usually passed down from parent to child, but under the right circumstances, an elemental master could give his or her powers to someone else."

"I see." Lou wondered how this was possible.

"The ninja will do everything in their power to bring Morgen down," Misako said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Good luck to them. Morgen is unpredictable."

"Yes. They told me about their last encounter with her, and they've stepped up their training to prepare to face her again. Wu and I have not been idle either. We have been searching for a cure for Cole."

"Have you found one?" Lou looked up to meet her gaze.

"Not yet. Wu is still going through his old scrolls, and I said I would bring back some more materials to search through."

"Oh." Lou looked at Cole.

Cole was incredibly pale, and his black hair made him look even paler. His muscles were slowly losing their tone. The initial swelling from his injuries was mostly gone, but he still had a lot of bruises, especially around his IV site and eyes.

"Lloyd told me that you never told Cole the truth about his mother, and that's why you won't tell them about Morgen?" Misako asked.

"I just… I don't know how to tell him what she did to him. To us. I didn't even know she had elemental powers. I didn't know elemental powers even existed until Cole saved me from getting crushed by stage lights."

"Really?"

"Yes. Surprisingly, it wasn't Morgen who tried to kill me that time," Lou muttered as he crossed his arms and leaned back into the chair.

"Lou, I understand you're mad at Morgen. You have every right to be mad. But for the sake of your son, you need to tell him the truth."

"You sound like my late wife."

"Cole deserves to know about his real mother. You said he's been asking about her. It will be painful, but you need to tell him about his mother."

"Cole had a mother! Her name was Anna. She was everything Morgen was not. Anna went to every school performance and award ceremony. She took care of him when he was sick. Anna was there when he and I were in the hospital right after the attack. Morgen may have given birth to him, but she was never Cole's mother. He doesn't need to know what she did."

"I know what it's like to make hard choices to keep your child safe," Misako said softly.

"No, you don't. You don't know anything about me. You don't know what I've gone through to keep him safe from her. You have no right to judge me or the choices I made to keep my son safe."

"My husband was Lord Garmadon. He was bitten by the Great Devourer and slowly turned evil by the snake's venom. I had to watch as his lust for controlling Ninjago grew stronger every day. I made a choice to take Lloyd away from him. I sent Lloyd to Darkley's Boarding School so he would be safe from his father. Lloyd was mad at me, and he felt like I abandoned him. He was so mad at me, he tried to become evil so he and his father would have a better relationship. Once we sat down and I explained everything to him, we were able to start afresh. Our relationship has never been stronger, but we wouldn't be where we are today if I hadn't told him the entire truth. He understood that I only wanted to keep him safe."

"Lord Garmadon never once wanted to hurt Lloyd. From my understanding, he tried to stop him from becoming the Green Ninja, but he never actually wanted to hurt Lloyd. Morgen has tried several times to kill Cole," Lou argued.

"That may be, but I was still worried about what would happen with Lloyd. I always worry about him. Every time he runs headfirst into danger, I pray for his safety. But, I also know that the other ninja will watch over him. They look out for each other. No matter the circumstances, the ninja always fight for each other."

Lou didn't know what to say. He refused to look Misako in the eye.

"I know what Morgen did was horrible, and I know you're mad at the ninja and Wu for letting it happen, but don't take your anger for Morgen out on the people who are trying to help you and your son," Misako continued.

Lou still said nothing. Misako stood up.

"I have to go. If we find anything, we will let you know. And if you need to talk, you are always welcome to call me." Misako left the room as Lou thought about what she said.


	14. Chapter 14

"Earth is a stubborn element. Where the other elements have a natural movement you can replicate, Earth does not. Fire cracks, Lightning strikes, Water flows, Ice expands, Energy explodes. Earth does not move. Even earthquakes are caused by the magma beneath the Earth moving it. To move the Earth, you must be stronger than the Earth, you must be more stubborn than the Earth, and you must not be afraid of the Earth."

Skylor had no idea how anything Hermes just said was supposed to teach her how to move the Earth. She glanced over at the other ninja who merely shrugged. She looked back at Hermes. He had declared the pile of sand "a pathetic attempt to replicate the natural world" and dragged Skylor into the forest. The others had followed out of curiosity, moral support, and because Kai didn't want his girlfriend alone with the man.

"Take off your shoes," Hermes demanded.

"Why?" Skylor asked, as she unlaced her shoes.

"You shall see. For now, we will put your friends to good use." Hermes eyed the ninja, who looked at each other nervously. He threw a cloth at Skylor.

"What is this?"

"A blindfold. When I tell you, put it on. Sparky, go behind that tree. Ocean, over there. Lightning Rod, I want you over by that rock. Robot, head down that path a little ways. Greenie, you're with me." Hermes grinned as he grabbed Lloyd by the arm. The others slowly got into their positions.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd asked, grateful Hermes didn't have super strength, since his grip on Lloyd's arm was starting to hurt.

"You're my hostage. Your friends will try to rescue you and she has to stop them using nothing but Earth. Amber, blindfold on!"

"How am I supposed to stop them if I can't see them?" Skylor asked as she adjusted the blindfold.

"You feel their movements in the ground beneath your feet."

"… I'm not sure Cole can do this," Skylor muttered.

"If he ever wakes up, I'll teach him, if for no other reason than to spite that no good punk kid. Everybody ready?" Hermes raised his arm and looked around. Everyone signaled they were ready, and he lowered his arm to signal go.

The others quickly rushed up to Skylor and prepared to fight, stopping right in front of her. When she didn't move, they slowly made their way over to Hermes and Lloyd.

"What the flying frick was that?" Hermes shouted as he stormed over to Skylor and ripped her blindfold off.

"What?"

"You had a perfect opening to take everyone out and you blew it!"

"But-"

"Butts are what you're supposed to be kicking. Okay, new plan. Sparky, you're my hostage this time. If you want to save Lover Boy here, then you have to take care out his guards."

"What if I can't?" Skylor asked as Kai and Lloyd traded places.

"If you think you will fail, then you will fail. So don't fail. Everybody, back to your starting positions."

"But I can't sense their movement in the ground! I don't see how this is supposed to teach me how to move the Earth!" Skylor protested.

"… Very well. Time for Plan B." Hermes dragged Kai over to a nearby cliff and shoved him off it.

"Kai!" Skylor and everyone else ran over to see Kai safe on a ledge below, but he was too far out of reach for them to pull him up.

"What the heck, Hermes?" Lloyd glared at the old man.

"Are you crazy?" Jay demanded, holding back a furious Nya from attacking Hermes.

"Why would you throw Kai off a cliff?" Zane asked.

"If Skylor wants to save her boyfriend, she will have to move the Earth. And anyone who interferes will have to face me."

"Just get me out of here, Skylor!" Kai yelled.

Hermes held everyone back as Skylor went to the edge of the cliff. She laid down on her stomach and tried to reach Kai. She couldn't. She closed her eyes and tried not to cry. Her mother could have rescued Kai. Her mother had mastered Earth when she was still a child and had relied on Earth in many fights, unlike Skylor who preferred Fire and Smoke. She wished her mom was still around. But she wasn't. And now her boyfriend was stuck on a ledge with no way out.

"I know you can do this, Skylor. Get me off this ledge so I can throw Hermes off the cliff," Kai pleaded.

"I… I can't. I'm sorry. I'm not my mother…" Skylor looked down so she wouldn't have to look at Kai.

"Say that again," Hermes said.

"I… I'm not my mother?" Skylor looked back at the old man in confusion.

"And again."

"… I'm not my mother."

"No, you're not. You're the daughter of a crazy man. You had to take over the restaurant because you can't do anything else. You can't even save your boyfriend from certain death. You are a complete failure."

"I'm not a failure!"

"Then prove it. Move the Earth and save your man."

Skylor looked at Kai again. He reached his hand up towards her. She imagined raising the ledge and Kai closer to her. She reached her hand out. They felt the ground shake a little as the ledge resisted moving. Kai fell on his knees and struggled to hold on as the ledge started to move. The other ninja ran to grab Kai as soon as he was in reach. Kai hugged Skylor for a minute, then he tackled Hermes to the ground. Or at least, he attempted to. It only took two moves for Hermes to pin Kai to the ground.

"Nice try, Sparky. I can't tell you how many times your father tried that exact same move on me. And it always ended with him pinned to the ground, much like you are now," Hermes said.

"Let me go!" Kai shouted.

Hermes released his grip, and Kai tried to tackle the old man again, only for Hermes to pin him to the ground again.

"You really are your father's son. Take it easy, kid. You were never in any danger. I would never to that to Ray's kid. He was one of my best friends."

"Really?" Nya asked.

"Yeah. You two wouldn't even be here if I hadn't convinced him to ask that girl out in the first place," Hermes said as he released Kai.

Before Kai could try to attack Hermes a third time, Zane's Falcon screeched and flew above them. It landed on Zane's arm.

"There's trouble in Ignacia," Zane said.

"That's not far from here. Let's go," Lloyd said.

"Wait. Are you sure we can do this without Cole? It doesn't seem right," Jay asked.

"Ninjago still needs us, and we're still a team. Until Cole wakes up, we have to keep Ninjago safe like always."

"Lloyd is correct," Zane commented.

"Besides, we have Skylor now," Kai said, holding her hand.

"Exactly. I think we can handle one incident without Cole." Lloyd turned and lead his team towards Kai and Nya's hometown.

"I guess. How hard can this be?" Jay nervously chuckled.


	15. Chapter 15

Everyone stared in awe at the boulder. It was the size of three or four houses combined. And it was sitting smack dab in the middle of the town. The landslide that drew the ninja to Ignacia hadn't been that bad, but somehow this boulder had made its way into the center of town without damaging a single thing.

"… We need Cole," Jay said, eyeing the villagers who expected the ninja to remove the boulder for them.

"Cole isn't here right now. We can do this without him," Lloyd said.

"Yeah. Think about how much fun it will be to tell him that we took care of a huge boulder without him," Kai laughed. He walked over to the thing and started shoving. It didn't even budge.

"Someone up in Cloud Kingdom must be having a blast right now," Lloyd muttered as he and the others joined Kai in trying to shove the thing out of town.

"You guys have fun with that. I'm going to go see Ray," Hermes said.

"Wait!"

Hermes either didn't hear them, or he chose to ignore them. Either way, he made his way to the blacksmith shop at the edge of town. It was empty, except for the remains of a struggle. Throwing stars were everywhere. Closer inspection of the walls and equipment revealed several deep gouge marks from blades. A piece of blue fabric was on the floor, and one of the edges was jagged where it had been torn off.

"Ray? Maya?" Hermes let himself into the residential part of the building on the second floor. In the master bedroom, along with more throwing stars and general battle damage, Hermes found a dagger sticking out from under the chest of drawers. He picked it up with a handkerchief so he wouldn't disturb any fingerprints that were on it. A quick scan of the rest of the room revealed nothing interesting, nor was there anything interesting in the rest of the upper level. He ran back outside and saw the ninja still struggling to move the boulder.

"Enough with the boulder. We have a bigger problem," Hermes said. Everyone stopped and stared at him.

"What?" Kai asked when Hermes didn't continue.

"Ray and Maya are missing."

"What? Have they been kidnapped again?" Nya yelled. She and Kai ran to the blacksmith shop.

"Uh… I'm not sure. Were they kidnapped before?"

"Krux kidnapped Ray and Maya fifteen or so years ago. We just found them a little over a year and a half ago," Lloyd explained before running after Kai and Nya.

"… Oh. And I just thought Ray was being a bad friend. Huh. The more you know," Hermes muttered to himself. He followed everyone to the shop.

"Mom! Dad!" Kai yelled from upstairs.

"Who did this?" Nya demanded. She stormed over to Hermes, ready to hit him with a blast of water as powerful as a firehose.

"I don't know, but maybe we can find out. Robot! Can you analyze some fingerprints and figure out who they belong to?" Hermes held out the dagger.

"I can try." Zane took the dagger and scanned it. He easily found the fingerprints and after hacking the police database, discovered that they belonged to a common street thug who had been in and out of jail their entire adult lives. The thug did have a juvie record, but it was sealed. Zane relayed this information to his teammates.

Meanwhile, Kai was taking out his anger on his dad's equipment. Skylor tried to comfort him, but he was having none of it.

"We know who did this! Let's storm that cave and make her pay for everything she's ever done!" Kai grabbed a sword and stormed towards the door.

"Kai, we don't know if Morgen is responsible for this or not," Lloyd said.

"She has to be! Kidnapping our parents is her M.O."

"Lou made it clear she was going after Cole for years. Cole is in a coma, and Lou barely leaves his side, so what good does it do to kidnap your parents?"

"Maybe it was Krux and Acronix? Maybe they escaped the time vortex when Wu did?" Jay asked.

"That is possible. We have not seen them since they tried to change the past," Zane said.

"Temporal Idiots did what now?" Hermes asked.

"We'll explain later. Right now, we need to figure out who took Ray and Maya," Lloyd said. He saw Hermes' confused expression and wondered why he didn't know about Krux kidnapping Ray and Maya.

* * *

Morgen smiled as Ray and Maya were dragged in. Maya was the more vocal of the two, but Morgen knew that would change soon enough. The pair clearly had no idea who she was or what was going on, and she loved it.

"Ah, finally. Master of Fire, Master of Water, I'm so glad you could make it. Now say goodbye, because you'll never see each other again. Take them to their cells." Morgen watched as the guards separated them, even as the pair yelled and reached for each other.

Once they were safely locked in their cells, she went to the kitchen and grabbed a tray. She walked to a cell deep in the cave system and unlocked the door. The prisoner didn't move from his spot on the bed. She placed the tray on the floor and picked something up off of it. She glanced up and saw the prisoner was awake.

"Time for your medicine, old man." She injected the needle into his thigh.

"Please, just let me die."

"Oh, I can't do that. You're going to live and watch me succeed. Then, I'm going to take your elemental power. Once that's done, I'm going to track down every last one of your teammates and take their powers."

"Your father would be disappointed in you."

"That's where you're wrong. He would be proud of me for getting revenge on you lot."

"He betrayed us."

"He was being controlled by Master Chen. He went back and apologized, but none of you would give him a second chance."

"Is that what he told you?"

"Just eat your food. I'll be back to check on you later." Morgen got up and slammed the door shut behind her.

The prisoner sighed as he heard the door lock. He sat up and picked up the tray of food. He had to use his hands to eat since Morgen didn't even trust him with plastic cutlery for fear he would try to take his life. As he ate, he wondered where in this cave system Morgen had her parents locked up, since that had to be the only reason Hermes and Kelly hadn't put a stop to all this. He refused to believe Hermes would betray everyone a second time.


	16. Chapter 16

While Skylor trained to perfect her mastery of Earth, Wu and Misako continued to hunt for a cure. After weeks and weeks of searching, Wu came across an old recipe that just might work. The only problem was he wasn't sure if he could get all of the ingredients in Ninjago. He, Misako, and the ninja decided the best place to start would be Mystaké's tea shop.

Everything was covered in a layer of dust but neatly organized. Mystaké clearly had been expecting to return to her shop after defeating Garmadon. They were able to find what they needed rather quickly. Misako and Lloyd went to the hospital to talk to Lou while everyone else stayed behind to mix the ingredients together.

Lou was hesitant to allow them to do anything to his son. They offered no guarantee that it would make things better, and they couldn't promise him that it wouldn't make things worse. It took a few hours, and even though he felt it was against his better judgment, Lou agreed to talk to the doctors.

The doctors were even less willing to allow the ninja to experiment on one of their patients. Two weeks of begging and pleading later and the ninja weren't any closer to getting permission to try Master Wu's solution on Cole. Only when Lou threatened to not only stop donating to the hospital, but he threatened to convince his parents to stop their donations as well did the hospital staff allow the ninja one day to try their unorthodox medical experiments.

Wu prepared the tea and brought it to the hospital. Only Wu and Misako were allowed in the room, as Lou was still mad at the ninja. Everyone else waited downstairs in the waiting room. Lou watched nervously as the nurse fed Cole the tea through his feeding tube. Nothing happened. They waited nearly two hours, and still nothing happened. Wu wanted to try giving Cole more tea, but Lou wouldn't allow it. He kicked the pair out before they could change his mind.

Once they were gone, Lou stared out the window. It was starting to cloud up like it was going to rain. He took a shaky breath and sat down on the bench. He was mentally kicking himself for allowing Wu and Misako to get his hopes up. Lots of people had visited in the five weeks Cole had been in the hospital, and they had all tried their best to give Lou hope. His parents and brothers all regularly visited. Even Lou's sister, who only vaguely knew other people existed and had lives, was aware that one of her nieces or nephews was in the hospital and sent all three of her brothers a quick "I hope your kid gets better soon" text. But, none of them could do anything to make Cole wake up. The doctors were telling Lou to prepare himself for the worst. Lou didn't know if he could bear to lose his only child, not after losing Morgen and Anna. He looked over at Cole. He would give up everything if only Cole would wake up.

* * *

"You're wrong, Anna." Cole crossed his arms and stared at his step-mother.

"How am I wrong?" Anna asked.

"Because _Birdpocalypse_ was designed to be a cheap B movie. I mean, did you even see the effects? I could take one computer graphics class and turn out more realistic looking birds than what they had in that movie. _Lost Avatar_, on the other hand, was supposed to be the next great epic movie series. Instead, it was a huge slap in the face to all the fans of the show, which is pretty much everyone around my age. They had to cancel the other two movies in the trilogy because it got so much hate. Hands down, _Lost Avatar_ is a worse movie than _Birdpocalypse_."

"I don't see how that is possible."

Cole smiled. He didn't want this moment to end. He had already given Anna a summary of everything that had happened the past seven years (though he did "forget" to mention the tiny detail of him turning into a ghost for a year), but rather than talk about the elephant in the room, they had somehow started talking about movies. That ended with them arguing over bad movies. He missed his pointless arguments with Anna. He couldn't really have them with his dad, and it wasn't the same with his friends.

"Trust me, it is. The real question is _Birdpocalyps_e or _Squidnado_," Cole said.

"What is _Squidnado_?"

"A superstorm formed over the ocean, picked up a bunch of man-killing giant squid, and dumped them over Ninjago City. Five times. Then they went to space. And the Squidnado followed them. To space."

"… I am so glad I missed that."

"Eh. It's stupid fun. Everyone dies pretty much, and everyone wants to be in these movies for some reason. And I do mean everyone. The Royal Blacksmiths died in _Squidnado 3_."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. No, be grateful you missed out on _The Rooms_. Oh, that was painful to sit through. The same guy wrote it, directed it, edited it, produced it, and starred in it. It was horrible! We only went because he gave us free tickets."

"Why?"

"PR I think? 'The ninja saw _The Rooms_ and loved it, so you will too!' But then, we weren't allowed to say anything bad about it while it was still in theaters. I had to text Uncle Wil for advice… on what… to say… I…"

"Cole?"

"I… I can't…" Cole grabbed his stomach and gasped for breath. He felt like his insides were on fire. Anna grabbed him just before he collapsed and held him upright.

"Shh. It's okay." As she brushed his hair out of his eyes, she could feel how hot his forehead felt to her touch. A minute or two later, and his breathing started to return to normal.

"… What… What was that?" Cole asked when he had his breath back.

"Someone is trying to force you to return to Ninjago," Anna explained.

"Why?"

"It's probably been a long time since your soul left, but your body is still alive for now."

"… Anna, how long have I been here?"

"It's impossible to say. Time moves differently in the Departed Realm, and I imagine it moves differently in limbo. You told me it's been seven years since I passed, but to me, it hasn't felt like more than a week. And now, to us, it's felt like a few hours, but to everyone in Ninjago, it's probably been a few weeks if not a few months."

"Months?"

"Yes. That's why I've been trying to get you to go back. You don't belong in the Departed Realm, not yet. You're still so young. You have so much life ahead of you, but only if you go back now. If something happens to your body and it dies, you won't get a second chance at life.

"I can't. Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because, I need answers. Answers I won't get from Dad. I've been thinking about this whole situation, and I know there's something he's not telling me, and…"

"And what?" Anna put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"Did Morgen kill you?"

"… Not directly, but she is responsible. She realized that if she wanted to get to you, she needed to take me out. And that's exactly what she did."


	17. Chapter 17

Anna sat at her desk, finishing up some paperwork before her next flight. She glanced up when Cole groaned. It was Friday afternoon, and instead of hanging out with his friends or playing video games at home, he had to do two weeks' worth of math homework by Monday or he risked failing the class. Anna had insisted he go to the airfield after school that day so she could make sure he actually got it done. She couldn't prove it, but she suspected he nearly failed most of his classes in order to try and get out of his extracurricular activities. The only classes he wasn't at risk of failing were his gym class and his introduction to business administration class.

"… When am I ever going to use algebra in real life?" Cole asked, rubbing his eyes.

"You may not, but you need to know how to learn concepts you struggle with because you never stop learning new things, and it may not always be easy," Anna told him.

"Really?"

"Yes. I was in class for two years before I earned my helicopter pilot certifications. It was hard, especially since I had to retrain myself to not follow the instincts I learned when flying planes. And long after you graduate, when you have a job, you will have to learn new skills, and it may be very hard for you. Learning algebra now is good practice for later."

Cole groaned and put his head down on the desk.

"Alright, take a break. Go to the vending machine and get me a chocolate peanut butter bar," Anna said, handing Cole two dollars. He took the money and left, and she went back to finishing up her paperwork. As soon as she was done, she looked up her next passenger on the roster. She frowned in confusion. The roster said she was taking Morgan Knight. That couldn't be right. Surely that couldn't be right. Maybe it was a coincidence, Anna reasoned, though her gut was telling her it wasn't.

"Anna?"

Anna jumped and looked up. She hadn't heard Cole come back.

"Yes?" Anna asked. She took the candy bar he was holding out for her.

"There's this really creepy guy in the lobby," Cole said, opening up his own candy bar.

"Creepy? How?"

"Just, the way he was staring at me. I don't know. He's what I imagine serial killers look like."

"I… I don't even know how to respond to that," Anna sighed.

Cole just shrugged and finished his candy bar.

"Right, I have to get going. Stay here and finish your homework. And no cheating by looking up the answers on my computer," Anna said.

"Aww, darn, you read my mind." Cole gave her a fake frown.

Anna patted his shoulder as she went to the waiting area. There were only four people there at the moment. One guy was by himself, dressed in black pants, a blood red shirt, and a black leather jacket. There were dark circles around his eyes His clothes were hanging off him, since he was extremely skinny. He stared at Anna from behind his long, thin hair. The other three people were obviously together. There was an older couple and a younger boy with reddish brown hair that looked to be about Cole's age, if not slightly younger. The boy was talking nonstop, clearly excited about riding in a helicopter.

"Morgan Knight?" Anna asked, hoping that the woman in the family would stand up. Instead, the man in black leather stood up.

"That's me." As he got up, Anna was hit with a wall of body odor mixed with way too much body spray. He stood extremely close to Anna, grinning when he sensed he was making her uncomfortable.

"Morgan?" Anna asked, taking a step backward. She nearly backed into her coworker, who called out for the Walker family. They followed her coworker out, leaving Anna alone with the man.

"It's a guy's name. You ready or what?"

"… Actually, I just wanted to tell you that I'm running a little bit behind today. I'm sorry about the delay. I saw that you requested me, but if you do not want to wait, one of my coworkers would gladly take you up instead."

"I don't mind waiting. I'll wait all day if I have to," Morgan said, getting close to Anna again.

"Right. Okay. Wait here, and I will come get you when I'm ready." Anna smiled at him as she backed out of the lobby. As soon as she was out of sight, she ran back to her desk. Cole looked up when she started packing his things into his backpack.

"Anna?" Cole asked.

"I need you to go to the library."

"Why?"

"Because I said so." She grabbed his arm and started dragging him down the hall, past reception and the waiting area, and to the front door.

"What's going on? You're acting weird, and you're hurting me."

"Sorry." Anna loosened her grip on his arm. She told the clerk at the front desk she was taking Cole to the bus stop and would be back soon.

"What's going on? Why are you walking me to the bus stop? You never do this," Cole asked when they were outside.

"I can't tell you right now. You just need to trust me."

Cole looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't say anything. Anna knew he was upset that she was starting to act like Lou whenever Cole tried to ask about his real mom. She hated having to dismiss his questions for the moment. She had always tried to give Cole a full answer whenever he asked her about anything. They walked to the bus stop that was a quarter of a mile from the airfield. To Anna's relief, the bus was at the end of the road headed their way.

"Now, go to the library and finish your homework there. And I will check it when we're back home."

"Okay. Who was that guy?"

"I promise, we will talk about this at home." Anna kissed his forehead, which he wiped off out of disgust. Anna smiled at him as the bus stopped in front of them.

"Cole? You know I love you and I would do anything for you, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good lad. I'll see you at home." She watched him get on, and once the bus left, she went back to the airfield. Once she was back, she grabbed a burly male coworker and asked him to be her copilot, saying she felt the guy might try something if it was just her. Her coworker agreed and quickly got himself ready to depart. They grabbed the passenger from the waiting area and headed out.

Anna and her copilot went over their pre-flight checks. Once everyone was buckled in, they started the engine. Before long, they were flying over the Sea of Sand headed towards Ninjago City.

"Alright, Mr. Knight, is there anything in particular you wanted to see today?" Anna asked.

"Yes, there was one thing."

Before Anna could react, he had grabbed Anna's copilot and held a rag over his mouth and nose. Anna could smell the chloroform from her seat. Anna reached for her mic, but the guy pointed a gun at her, still holding her copilot down.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You just keep her steady until I say so." A few minutes later, her copilot went limp. The passenger then climbed into the front seat, opened the door, and shoved the copilot out.

"No!" Anna yelled. She tried to stop him, but he was too fast for her.

"Finally, some privacy."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Anna demanded, trying to keep her voice steady while struggling to keep the helicopter straight without a copilot. She carefully lowered the aircraft in twenty-foot increments, hoping the whole time the guy wouldn't notice.

"It's not important who I am. Let's just say we have a mutual acquaintance."

"Why?"

"She wants to see her child, but she knows you won't let her."

"I won't let that happen. My husband won't let that happen. She just wants to kill him."

"Perhaps. But, she told me that as long as you're around, you won't let her see her son. She came to me and made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Oh?" Anna managed to turn the helicopter around and started heading back to the airfield, but flying solo was difficult, especially with the gun still pointed at her.

"I'm dying, Mrs. Burtchenelli. Stage four colon cancer. It's only a matter of weeks. And my wife will be paying my medical bills for years to come. My kid won't get to go to college because there won't be any money. Morgen offered to make sure everything was paid for, if I just do this one thing."

"I won't let you."

"Oh, you don't have a choice."

As they wrestled for control, the helicopter started to violently spin. Anna saw the ground rapidly approaching and braced for impact.

After what felt like an eternity, the helicopter stopped moving. Anna opened her eyes. She was still buckled into her seat, just inches from the ground. The helicopter was on its side. She couldn't see her passenger from her vantage point, but she could smell smoke. Pain raced through her body as she slowly tried to move. She managed to reach the mic, but it fell apart in her hands. She started to cough as the toxic smoke reached her. She tried to unbuckle the seatbelt, but it was jammed. Anna started to cry. She prayed Lou and Cole would be safe from Morgen. It was only a few minutes before she succumbed to the smoke and her injuries.


	18. Chapter 18

"Madam Knight?"

"What is it, underling?" Morgen turned around to face the minion who dared to approach her.

"One of our early detection warnings was activated. The ninja are making their approach from the west. They are about twenty minutes out."

"Well, it's about time. It's been six weeks since I last saw them. Was my son with them?"

"I do not know."

"Well, find out and report back to me."

"Yes, ma'am." The underling ran off before Morgan decided to "motivate" him.

Morgen walked to the room where her machine was. Karlof was busy working on it. The guard who was watching him perked up when she entered the room.

"Tell me this is ready," Morgen demanded.

"Karlof still working on it."

"You have exactly five minutes to make it work. When the five minutes are up, take him to his cell. And prepare for battle. We have some long overdue guests coming." Morgan stormed out of the room and went down the hall. She stopped at one of the cells and unlocked the door.

"Wakey, wakey. Time to get going." Morgen opened the cell door and stepped inside. Libby sat up.

"What's going on?" Libby asked. It had been weeks since Morgen had bothered to make sure Libby was still alive.

"It's time for the show. Places, everyone!" Morgen dragged Libby back to the machine and hooked her up.

"No! Please!"

"Time for a test. Just as soon as our guests arrive." Morgen rubbed her hands in anticipation.

"Please, don't do this," Libby pleaded.

"Do you think I'm kind? Merciful? Compassionate? I'm not one of the ninja. The same ninja who would never dare leave a defenseless person behind. Something I can use to my advantage. Now, let's see if Karlof managed to fix my machine." Morgen started the warm-up process. Libby whimpered when it started to hum. They could soon hear the sound yelling and metal clanging against metal in the hallway.

"They made great time. No matter. Time to extract your powers." Morgen pushed some buttons and watched as electricity started shooting through Libby, causing her to scream. She arched her back in pain, losing control of her own body. Morgen slowly increased the power.

The ninja burst into the room and quickly surveyed the scene.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," Morgen said calmly.

"Your reign of terror is over, Morgen," Lloyd said, stepping closer to Morgen with his swords drawn.

"You can stop me, or save her. It's your choice." She smiled at them.

"Jay, Nya, figure out how to turn off the machine. Everyone else, with me,"

Morgen pulled out a Taser and turned it on. She pointed it at the ninja as she increased power to the machine, making Libby scream louder.

"Let's see how you like that shocking feeling," Jay said as he shot lightning at Morgen. She stumbled away from the control panel and dropped the Taser, allowing Nya to swoop in and shut the machine off. Libby went limp on the table.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Morgen. But we're not letting you do this to anyone else," Lloyd said.

"Where are our parents?" Kai demanded, his fists on fire.

"… Lightning? He… You… You _lied_ to me!" Morgen grabbed the Taser and ran towards Libby. Right before she got to the unconscious woman, she was knocked sideways by a wall of solid rock.

"Enough," Skylor said. She slowly lowered her arm, bringing it back towards her body, ready to attack Morgen again.

"What? How?" Morgan glared at the redhead.

"Cole never had a chance at recovering, but he lived long enough to transfer his powers to me. And I'm going to use them to bring you in." Skylor used her powers to bend the ground around Morgen, causing her to sink into a hole. As she climbed out, everyone surrounded her, weapons pointed at her. Morgen screamed as she looked around.

"It's over, Morgen," Kai said.

"It's never over." She rushed Lloyd, pinning his arm behind his back. She pulled out a dagger she had hidden somewhere on her body and held it against his throat.

"Morgen Pamela Knight!"

Everyone turned to see Hermes standing in the doorway looking very cross. Lloyd took advantage of the distraction to free himself from her grasp.

"Dad?"

"What do you think you're doing? Where have you been for all these years? And why is Libby strapped to that table?" Hermes stormed over to her and took her keys from her pocket.

"Dad, I can explain."

"Oh, I can't wait to hear this. Lightning Rod, free your mom." Hermes tossed the keys to Jay, who stared at Hermes with his mouth agape. Everyone else also stared in confusion.

"That's… Huh?" Lloyd asked.

"You never met his mom?" Hermes looked at the confused expressions on everyone's faces.

"We have… And that's not her," Kai said.

"Jay's mother's name is Edna Walker," Zane said.

"I don't know any Edna Walker, but there is no denying that he is Libby Gordon's kid. I knew he was her kid the moment I saw him."

"Uh…" Jay had no clue what to say, especially since he hadn't actually told any of his friends he was adopted. His parents didn't know that he knew he was adopted.

"Morgen, start talking." Hermes dragged his daughter into the hallway, away from prying ears.

"Dad, I… I had no choice. Lou, I told you what he did to me! How he treated me, it was awful! I lost my baby because of him!" Morgen started crying fake tears.

"Uh-huh… I ran into him a few weeks ago. He had a lot to say about you, and what happened to your son. Care to try again?" Hermes crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Uh, he… He's lying! You can't believe a word he says! He killed my baby!"

"Then why is your baby now twenty and in a coma?"

"He… He cheated on me! He got someone else pregnant, and…" Morgen could tell her father didn't believe her. She looked at the ground, unable to answer his question.

"I know your tell, Morgen. Probably why you never actually told me what Lou supposedly did to you and let me find out from your mother. Let's try a different question. How many people do you have locked up in this cave system?"

"Um… I…"

"Are they all my old teammates?"

"… Most of them."

"Why?"

"I… I did it for you! You told me how they stabbed you in the back and refused to give you a second chance! They had to pay for what they did!"

"That is not even close to what happened. Last chance, Morgen. Tell me the truth."

Morgen again refused to look at her father. She thought about running away, but he grabbed her and wrapped her in a hug. She started crying for real and crumbled to the floor. He lowered her down, stroking her hair.

"It's okay, baby girl. We'll get through this. Your mother and I still love you. We'll get you some help," Hermes whispered. Morgen continued to cry. His heart broke some when Lloyd came into the hallway and insisted on putting cuffs on her, but he knew she needed them.

The ninja came out. Jay and Kai were supporting a barely conscious Libby. She was trying to tell them about another prisoner, but her words were too mumbled to be understood. Hermes and Morgen followed everyone down the hall. Before long, they came to a cell. Lloyd unlocked the door and went inside.

"Hermes? Do you know who this is?"

Hermes made his way into the cell and looked at the old man, asleep on the bed.

"Ice?"


	19. Chapter 19

The old man was tired. He leaned up against a tree to catch his breath. The cold air made him cough. Everything made him cough. He suspected he had pneumonia, but he couldn't risk going to a doctor. Hermes' crazy daughter was after him. She went to his house and tried to capture him there, but he managed to get away. But no matter how far away from his house he got, she was always one step behind him. He had managed to give her the slip deep in Birchwood Forest, but he knew it wouldn't be long before she found him again. He used his powers to summon a blizzard and kept going.

Normally, he could manage fine in blizzards, but not today. His lungs burned with every breath. The snow started to disorient him. He took a few more steps and fell. He crawled over to a nearby tree, coughing the whole way. He grasped the tree for support, but it didn't feel right. It felt like metal. Closer inspection revealed what looked like a doorknob. He took a chance and knocked. A minute or two later, the door in the tree opened a crack. A man in a lab coat peered out.

"Hello? Oh, my! Come in, come in! You must be freezing. Zane, put a kettle on. We have company."

The old man leaned against the man in the lab coat as they descended the stairs.

"Some weather we're having, eh? My name is Dr. Julien, and this is my son, Zane."

"Hello. I am Zane. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

The old man tried to speak, but he started coughing.

"That's a nasty cough you have there. Sit down, I'll fetch some medicine." Dr. Julien gestured toward the bed. Once he was sitting, Dr. Julien went to a cabinet and started digging through it. Zane finished up with the tea and brought over a steaming cup.

"Here, this will help with your cough," Zane said, handing over the cup.

The old man nodded his thanks and sipped the tea. It felt good on his throat.

"What is your name?" Zane asked.

"Everyone calls me Ice."

"Why?"

"I ask them to. I hate my given name. This is good." He held up the cup, hoping to change the subject.

"It's ginger honey tea."

"Found it!" Dr. Julien came back over with some medicine. He handed it over to Ice.

"Thank you." Ice took the medicine and washed away the taste with the tea.

"I'm curious. We don't get many visitors. What brings you all the way out here, in this weather no less?" Dr. Julien grabbed a chair and sat across from Ice.

"Oh, well, I have to go see an old friend of mine as quickly as possible. I really should be going," Ice said, standing up.

"Nonsense, you'll stay here until this storm passes and you're better."

Ice was too tired to argue, so he put the cup down and laid down on the bed. He told Dr. Julien he would be okay with sleeping on the floor, but the doctor insisted. He managed to sleep for a few hours.

It was still dark when he woke up. The clock read eleven thirty-three. Ice got up and searched for his bag. He hadn't noticed earlier, but Dr. Julien must've taken it at some point and stored it somewhere.

"What are you looking for?" Zane asked.

Ice whipped around. Zane was right behind him, staring at him.

"Shh. We don't want to wake him up," Ice whispered, glancing at Dr. Julien on the couch.

"You should be resting."

"Yes, well, I remembered I had some herbal tea in my bag. Could you please boil some water, so I can drink it? It will help my throat not feel so sore."

"Of course." Zane went off to fetch the water, and Ice found his bag. There wasn't much in it, just some pens, gum, some trash, and tea bags from Mystaké. He sighed as he took them out. This tea was designed to force an elemental power to go to a new host. Usually, the act of having children triggered this event naturally, but Ice had blown it with the one girl he liked years ago. Now, he was sixty-eight years old with no hope of meeting someone new, let alone having children. Mystaké had given the tea to him so he could use it when he found someone worthy of his power. That was almost ten years ago, and he still hadn't found someone he wanted to give the tea to. Now he had no choice. If he wanted a chance of stopping Morgen, if he wanted his element to continue once he had passed on, he had to give up his power now. Besides, he doubted Morgen would look for his power in a robot.

"Here you are," Zane said. He placed the teapot on the table in front of Ice, along with a cup.

"Thank you. Grab a cup and join me." Ice placed the tea bags into the pot. He glanced at the clock. Eleven forty-four. He and Zane both had to drink the tea before midnight, or else he would have to wait for the next midnight to roll around for the spell to activate.

Zane protested, but Ice insisted. Not wanting to seem rude, Zane agreed and got a cup. Ice sipped the tea, staring at Zane. It took a moment, but Zane eventually sipped his tea. Ice looked at the clock. Eleven fifty. Good.

"Where is your family?" Zane asked.

"Huh?" Ice asked, caught off guard.

"Do you not have a family?"

"Uh, no. Not anymore. I never married, and my parents died a long time ago. The closest I have to family is Libby. I found her when she was ten. She was living on the streets and I took pity on her. I let her sleep on my couch for the night, and she never left until she got married."

"It is sad you do not have a family."

"It's okay. I was close with my group of friends. We were basically family. This tea really helped, but I'm tired now. I'm going to head to bed now. Good night, Zane." Ice hurried back to the bed, leaving Zane confused. He faced away from Zane and waited. A few minutes later, he was overcome with sleep. He heard Zane power down right before he lost consciousness.

In his dream, he saw a pulsating orb. It was white, and snow was falling from it. Slowly, the orb started to fade and move away from him. Eventually, he could no longer see it. When he woke up, his powers were gone. It was six in the morning, and Dr. Julien was still asleep. Zane was still powered down. Ice grabbed his bag, dumbed out the rest of the tea from last night, and left. He wished he could say a proper thank you and goodbye, but he couldn't risk Morgen finding Zane. He walked up the staircase and out the door, determined to get as far away as possible. Unfortunately for him, he was still weak, and the cold air made his cough worse, so he didn't make it very far before Morgen caught up to him.

"My, my. You're a long ways from home, old man," Morgen chided.

"You… Your father would… He…" Ice couldn't finish, he was coughing so much.

"Oh, you sound horrible. Not to worry. We'll make you all better. Grab him."

Morgen's underlings easily subdued the weakened former Elemental Master. They dragged him back to her cave and locked him in a cell. She made sure he got plenty of medicine and rest.

"Why me?" Ice asked her.

"I'm going to build a machine to extract elemental powers from their masters. Once it's done, I'm going to need a test subject, and you will do perfectly. No family to miss you, no children to pass it on to. Yes, you are the perfect test subject for my experiment."

Ice said nothing, but he hoped his adopted daughter would come looking for him. As time passed, the days blended together until he could no longer tell one day apart from the next. Morgen always made sure he was well taken care of. Years passed, and he never gave up hope that Libby would come for him.


	20. Chapter 20

Ray managed to get out of his chains less than twenty minutes after Morgen had abandoned him in his cell. He had never been more thankful for his childhood fascination with locks. He couldn't get out of the cell, but at least he was able to move around the room. It was completely dark in the cell, with only a small amount of light entering from underneath the door. The walls and floor were made of solid rock. There was nothing to do. He quickly lost track of days, and day and night blurred together. The first time someone brought him food, he nearly managed to escape, but guards quickly outnumbered and overpowered him and locked him back up. After that, they would send no less than ten guards to his cell with food. If he got food at all. He couldn't be sure, but he suspected he only got food every few days.

The voices Ray heard in the hallway got his attention. He crept to the door and listened. He heard Morgen's voice. She was yelling something, but he couldn't make it out. The echo of the hallway distorted the sounds he heard, and the thick, wooden door muffled the voices. He listened carefully. Was he imagining it, or was Hermes with Morgen? He couldn't tell. He heard someone else speak. Was that Kai? Had Morgen captured his son, and had Hermes allowed it? He heard the jingle of Morgen's keys and stepped back when one was inserted into the lock in his cell door. He would make Morgen pay for what she did. The cell door opened, and he realized too late that Kai, not Morgen, had entered the cell. His fist collided with Kai's jaw.

"Oh my gosh! Kai! I am so sorry! Are you alright?" Ray helped Kai up. Kai was holding his jaw.

"What was that for?" Kai asked.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were Morgen." Ray looked up and saw Lloyd, Nya, Skylor, Morgen, and Hermes all staring at him. Libby was leaning against Jay and looked like she could pass out at any moment, and Hermes had a tight grip on Morgen's arm. He did not see Maya.

"Let's get you to the _Bounty_, Dad," Kai said.

"Where's your mom?"

"We haven't found her yet. Everyone is being taken to the _Bounty_ for treatment," Hermes said.

"I'm not leaving here without Maya."

"How many more cells are there, Morgen?" Lloyd demanded.

"A few more," Morgen spat.

The group continued down the hall until they came across another cell. Lloyd opened the door and they saw Karlof chained up inside. They quickly freed him, and he grabbed Kai in a bear hug.

"Karlof happy to see ninja. Where is crazy woman? Karlof crush her head like grape."

"You will do no such thing," Hermes said, angling himself between Karlof and his daughter.

"We'll take care of her," Kai said once he managed to free himself from Karlof's grasp.

The group continued down the hall. They found yet another cell. They unlocked it and found Maya inside. She barely moved as they unlocked her chains.

"Maya!" Ray sat down next to her. She opened her eyes and smiled at him. He helped her stand up and kept his arm around her as they followed Nya, Kai, and Karlof out of the cave to the waiting ship.

In the infirmary, Jay and Zane were keeping their distance from the bed where Ice was laying down. Libby was kneeling next to him, holding his hand, and crying.

"Ice?" Maya asked. She and Ray made their way over to the bed and sat down on some chairs. Ice looked up at them.

"My word, you're still alive?" Ray asked.

"For now," Ice whispered.

About ten more prisoners were found. They were all either past or present Elemental Masters, including Ash, Neuro, and Gravis. Once everyone was on board, they headed to a nearby village to get everyone into the hospital.

"Where is Cole?" Karlof asked once everyone, except for Hermes and Morgen who were elsewhere on the ship, had gathered in the infirmary.

"Morgen put him in a coma almost two months ago," Lloyd said.

"Why?" Ray asked.

"She said he stole her power, and she wanted it back," Kai explained.

"Ice, how are you still alive?" Maya asked.

"Morgen kept me alive. She gave me something to keep me alive," Ice said.

"How long were you locked up?" Ray asked.

"I don't know."

"Morgen got me a few months after she got him, because I went looking for him," Libby admitted.

"How long ago was that?" Kai asked.

"I don't know. My son, Jay, was a year old, I know that."

Everyone stared at Jay.

"What?" Jay asked, nervously.

"Hermes did say she was your mother," Zane pointed out.

"Uh, you've met my mother, remember? Old woman who likes to embarrass me? Lives in a junkyard with my dad? Ring a bell?"

"Jay?" Libby asked.

"Um…" Jay looked around at everyone staring at him. It wasn't often he was rendered speechless.

"Jay, just tell them what you told me," Nya said.

"Oh, fine! I recently… found evidence suggesting that I might be adopted. I can't prove it, and I don't know how to ask my parents about it," Jay admitted.

"How old are you?" Libby asked, staring at him.

"Nineteen. Uh, I'm going to go see if we're almost there." Jay ran out of the infirmary with Nya following him. They did not return before they arrived at the hospital.

Doctors and nurses quickly got everyone off the _Bounty_, starting with more critical cases like Ice or Libby. Tests were performed, fluids given, and everyone was monitored. Morgen was taken to Ninjago City where she was promptly arrested. Hermes called his wife, brought her up to speed, and she got on the next bus to Ninjago City to support her family.

Ice, whose real name was Horatio, was glad to finally be free. He never expected to leave the cave system alive, and he had made peace with that fact a long time ago. Seeing Libby one last time had filled his heart with joy. He died peacefully in his sleep that night, at the age of ninety-four.


	21. Chapter 21

Lou was numb as he and his oldest brother, Wil, walked to the conference room. He already knew what the doctor was going to tell the ninja, since the doctors had first brought it up a week ago. He had asked his parents and both his brothers for advice. He even asked his childless sister and her husband what they would do in this scenario. It wasn't an easy question to answer. He knew what he should do, but he wanted to hear the opinion of Wu, Misako, and the ninja, just in case they managed to change his mind.

Morgen was sitting in jail somewhere, but Cole still was not awake, and his body was failing. The ninja had interrogated her, but she claimed there was no cure for him, since he wasn't supposed to survive in the first place. Hermes and Kelly tried talking to her, but she refused to cooperate. She knew that even though she would be charged with first-degree murder, she still won.

While they waited for the ninja to show up, for the thousandth time since Cole was admitted to the hospital, Lou thought back to when Cole was ten. He and Anna decided to walk to the corner market near their house, leaving Cole home alone. It was something they pair did all the time. The trip wasn't even supposed to be twenty minutes long. Yet, it was long enough for someone probably sent by Morgen to set fire to the house. Lou and Anna could see the smoke from the market and ran back to the house. Firefighters were already there by the time they made their way through the crowd. They hadn't realized someone was trapped in the house, and it took five people to stop Anna from running into the burning building. Cole slept for three days, but when he woke up, other than a raspy voice and some second-degree burns, he was fine. The doctors back then weren't sure if Cole would make it, just like they weren't sure now. Except it had been much longer than three days.

Lou looked up when the door opened. A doctor was ushering everyone into the room. Everyone was confused why one of the few, true triple threats in the entertainment business was sitting next to Lou. Except for Jay, who was trying and failing to hide his excitement.

"Wil Burton! Hi! Uh, I mean, hi, uh… You're here?" Jay stammered.

"… I'm just here to support my brother," Wil said.

"Brother? You… and he… so Cole…"

"Burton is just a stage name. Benny uses the same fake name I do."

"Ben Burton? You… Cole never told me he was related to celebrities! Why? He knows how much I like Ben Burton movies. I could kill him for not telling me."

Lou, Wil, and the doctor all looked extremely uncomfortable. The doctor cleared his throat.

"Yes, um, let's get started. I am Dr. Yolada, Cole's primary care physician while he's been here. The reason you are here today is because Mr. Bur…Burchin… Cole's dad wanted your opinion on the matter."

"Our opinion?" Zane asked.

"Yes. It has been eight weeks since Cole was admitted. In that time, we have tried everything we could think of to cure him. Nothing has worked. We even allowed your experimental treatment, and that too yielded no result. MRIs, CT scans, and EEG tests have all determined that his brain activity is minimal. His oxygen levels keep dropping, and last week, we placed him on a ventilator to help him breathe. Despite our best efforts, his body continues to deteriorate. Every day he does not wake up, the odds of him ever waking up go down."

"What are you saying?" Lloyd asked.

"There is nothing more we can do for him. At this point, it would be kinder to Cole to take him off the ventilator, remove his feeding tube, and let nature take its course," Dr. Yolada said.

"What? Are you nuts? We aren't going to let you kill Cole!" Kai shouted. The others voiced their agreement.

"Kai…" Wu started.

"No, tell them they're wrong, Master Wu! He could still wake up! We could try another tea, a potion, something, anything!"

"There is nothing else to try."

"But, to kill Cole? It doesn't seem right," Lloyd said.

"How long before you turn off his life support?" Zane asked.

"It's Lou's decision," Wil said.

Everyone turned to face Lou. He couldn't look at them. Everything the doctor said made sense, and he knew it was kinder to let Cole pass, but he had already lost two wives and an unborn child, now they were asking him to say goodbye to his son, the only family he had left. He didn't know if he could handle it.

"If you do nothing, how long will he live?" Misako asked.

"It's hard to say. It could be months or even years. However, you also have to consider his quality of life. Do you really want to keep him alive only to be tied to a hospital bed for the rest of his life, unable to interact with the world?" Dr. Yolada asked.

"What do you think, Lou?" Lloyd asked.

Lou couldn't speak. He wished Anna was around to help him through this. He instead focused on not crying in front of the ninja.

"He's conflicted. As a parent, you want what's best for your children. Yet something like this… If it was me and my wife having to make this decision about one of our children, I'm sure we would feel exactly the same way," Wil said, speaking for his brother.

"Morgen never wanted to have children," Lou whispered.

"Yes, erm, we will not proceed until the papers are signed and processed," Dr. Yolada interjected.

"So, there's time to find another cure," Kai said.

"There isn't another cure."

"Listen to the doctor, Kai. I've been monitoring Cole's vitals remotely, and I agree. Cole will most likely never wake up, and as painful as it is, it will be selfish to keep him here," Zane said.

"But he's our brother, Zane. And if anyone could come back from the brink of death, it's Cole. He was a ghost for a year and he came back from that," Jay pointed out. Dr. Yolada looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah, what's to say he won't pull a stunt like that again?" Kai asked.

"It has been two months already. If he wanted to return, he would have done so," Zane said sadly.

"Maybe he can't?" Jay asked.

"Or maybe we've just been delaying the inevitable," Lloyd commented.

"Lloyd?" Kai asked.

"Face it. Without modern medicine, Cole would've died back when Morgen first attacked him. You heard her. Even with his powers, he wasn't meant to survive. Cole is strong, but he's not invincible. And you know he has to be in pain, even if he can't tell us. He can't move on his own, he can't feed himself, and his breathing is labored. I don't think Cole would want to be kept alive just to suffer and never leave the hospital."

The other ninja looked at Lloyd. They hated to admit it, but he was right. Slowly, everyone but Kai murmured their agreement. Kai stormed out of the room. Dr. Yolada nodded and said he would have the papers brought up.

Lou hesitated to sign the papers. Deep down, he knew Cole was suffering, and he knew he should let Cole pass on, but he wanted just a little bit more time with his son. Lou's parents, two brothers, sister, and their families all took shifts staying with him during the day. No one was allowed to stay overnight. The ninja came every day, visiting two at a time. Even Hermes and Kelly came over to look at the grandson they never knew they had.

Everyone but Kai came to terms with what would happen and prepared themselves. Kai refused to give up. He fought with everyone, saying Cole could still wake up. He searched Wu's scrolls for a cure that was missed somehow. He visited Morgen in prison and demanded again to know exactly what she did to him and how to undo it.

A month passed. Lou decided to stop procrastinating, stop making up excuses, stop listening to the empty hope Kai possessed. He signed the papers. They removed Cole's feeding tube that afternoon. They also took him off the ventilator, though they kept him on oxygen. The nurses and doctors said it would be a few days, so everyone would have time to say their last goodbyes. The ninja piled into Cole's room. Lou didn't fight them. He couldn't. They stayed there until a nurse kicked them out when visiting hours were over. They promised to return the next morning as soon as they were allowed in.

Lou was left alone that night. He stroked his son's hair, praying for a miracle. All of the emotions he had been holding back the past three months came rushing up to the surface. He wished he could take the past twenty years back. He wished he had been a better father to Cole. He wished he had told Cole the truth. Now it was too late. In a few days, Cole would be gone. He held his son and sobbed. Morgen had won.


	22. Chapter 22

Cole didn't want to go back. Yet, he couldn't explain it, but he felt like if he didn't leave now, he wouldn't get another chance to return to Ninjago. He looked up at Anna with sad eyes. He didn't want to lose her again. After she died, everything changed for the worse. Memories he had tried for years to repress came rushing back.

* * *

Cole sighed. As often as he was sent to the library, he rarely checked out books. Instead, he would grab a book and sit down at a table and read until it was time for him to go home. He always made sure to put the book back where he found it, something the staff loved. Unfortunately for Cole, someone had checked out the book he had started reading the last time he was here. He decided to go to the desk and ask whoever was working that day for something similar.

As he walked to the desk, he passed the row of computers. A conversation caught his ear. A group of people were watching the news online, and the image on the screen made his stomach turn. He pushed his way closer to get a better view. A tour helicopter crashed in the Sea of Sand. Cole ran out of the library. He had to get home. His dad would be home by now, surely he would know who had crashed.

"Anna?" Lou called when Cole opened the door.

Cole ran into the living room where his dad was watching the news. He stared at the TV as he sat down on the couch next to Lou. No names had been released yet.

"I-I'm sure it's not her. She's probably stuck at work and can't call us," Lou said. Cole wasn't sure if Lou said that to reassure Cole or himself.

A knock on the door made them both jump. Lou got up to answer it. Cole didn't hear who was at the door, but a moment later he heard Lou start to yell. He got up and went to investigate. There were two policemen at the door with their hats off. Cole didn't wait for them to say anything. Instead, he ran past them, up the stairs, and flung himself onto his bed. He refused to let himself start crying. The police had to be wrong. Anna was a great pilot, there's no way she would crash. A few minutes later, Lou came up to check on Cole, but Cole wanted to be left alone.

"Do you want some dinner?" Lou asked a few hours later.

"I'm not hungry," Cole answered.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No."

"Okay. Goodnight." Lou whispered and left Cole alone to sleep.

Cole couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the image of the crash wreckage from the TV. He thought about going to his dad's room, but he didn't want to because what thirteen-year-old needs to climb into their parents' bed at night? Instead, he tossed and turned and stared at the clock. Finally, at three in the morning, he crept to his dad's room and softly knocked on the door.

"Dad?" Cole whispered as he cracked the door open. Lou bolted upright.

"Cole?" Lou asked.

"I can't sleep." Cole opened the door all the way and stepped inside.

"Me neither." Lou turned on the small light in the headboard and sat up.

Cole walked around to Anna's side of the bed and sat down. He didn't know what to say. He hugged his knee, trying not to cry. Lou put his arm around Cole, and Cole leaned into his dad's embrace. Some tears escaped, but he didn't care.

"It's okay. We'll get through this," Lou whispered. Again, Cole didn't know who Lou was talking to. They sat there, not saying anything, for a long time.

Cole must've fallen asleep, since he blinked and suddenly there was light starting to peek into the room. The time on the cable box said it was just past six in the morning. Cole rolled over. Lou was still sleeping. He sighed and thought back to the previous day.

Anna had been acting strange and the way the creepy guy had been staring at him gave him chills. Cole couldn't help but think that somehow, he was to blame for Anna's death. He thought about telling Lou when he woke up, but he knew his dad wouldn't take him seriously. He never did.

The following week was a blur. People came over and offered their condolences. Most of them brought food, but Cole didn't eat. He couldn't. It felt like there was a lump in his throat. He sat in the kitchen all day, watching the people who came over. His grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all came over, as did the Royal Blacksmiths. Some of Anna's old military friends came by, as did her parents, brother, and extended family. No one paid Cole any attention.

It had only been a few days, and the Ninjago Air Transportation and Safety Board were still investigating the accident. While they waited for the cockpit voice recorder data to come back, they looked at the wreckage. That combined with the copilot's body being found a few miles from the crash site left them with many questions. But one reporter thought she had all the answers. Gayle Gossip reported to all of Ninjago that Anna had intentionally crashed the helicopter and she was the one who pushed her copilot out of the aircraft, because her time in the military left her with a severe case of undiagnosed PTSD and she had finally snapped. The public was furious. It didn't matter that the NATSB came out at the end of the week with their report and placed all blame on the actions of the passenger. The damage had been done.

The police did the bare minimum to stop protestors from attacking the Lavinskys and Burtchenellis. Even Lou's parents weren't immune from the vandalism, and Anna's parents nearly lost their pet cat in the attacks. Her brother's law firm lost a ton of business, Wil Burtchenelli movies were boycotted, Ben Burton CDs were burned, and Lou was nearly kicked out of the Royal Blacksmiths because of the backlash. On the day of the funeral, the military took over protection detail, carefully escorting everyone from the house to the graveyard.

Cole watched as soldiers carried Anna's coffin to her gravesite. He refused to cry in front of strangers. Seven soldiers did a twenty-one gun salute as they lowered her into the ground. The bugler played taps. People Cole didn't know came up to him and hugged him. They told him they were sorry for his loss. He didn't believe them. How could they be sorry for him if he had never seen half these people before in his life?

When he went back to school, he could hear the whispers, and he pretended he didn't notice the looks everyone was giving him. He knew what they were saying. Not only did he lose Anna, but now everyone knew she was actually his step-mom and not his real mom. The same step-mom the media were still smearing. His teachers didn't bother to call on him to answer questions, and the issue of his missing math homework vanished. He kept his head down and waited until summer when he could hide from the world for three months.

Cole spent most of his summer in his bedroom, not doing anything. He didn't even celebrate his birthday. It didn't feel right to him. Lou, on the other hand, poured himself into his work. Cole didn't understand how his dad could go on acting like nothing had happened. He didn't know that once he was at work, Lou struggled to stay focused because he missed his wife and he had no idea how to keep his son safe from Morgen.

At the end of summer, Lou sat Cole down at the kitchen table and handed him a pamphlet for the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts. He explained that he had enrolled Cole for the next year. Cole fought his dad, but Lou insisted. He took off work to make sure Cole made it into the building that first day.

Cole hated his classes. He hated the school. He wondered which of his relatives had donated the money to build the Burtchenelli Music Hall. Probably Wil. Cole spent the next two days plotting his escape. He found the lack of security amusing, and he easily slipped out a back door Wednesday night. Getting out of Ninjago City was also easier than expected, since most of the bus drivers knew who he was. All he had to do was convince one of them he wanted to go to the airfield to think for a while. Once he got off at the stop a quarter-mile away, he waited until the bus was out of sight, then went in the opposite direction.

He couldn't explain it, but he felt called to head towards the mountains. He started climbing daily, going higher and higher every outing. He felt like this was where he belonged. No one was around to stare and whisper. No one was around to make him feel guilty for what happened. No one was around to offer empty sympathy. It was just him, the mountains, and a few months later, an old man sipping tea. As he followed the old man, he swore he heard Anna telling him he would be alright.

* * *

"It'll be alright, lad. We'll see each other again. I promise," Anna said, her voice choking as she started to cry.

"I know…" Cole hugged her.

"I'll be waiting for you and your father to join me."

Cole nodded as tears escaped his eyes.

"Tell your father I love him, and I won the bet," Anna said, wiping away tears.

"What bet?"

"He knows what bet. I love you, Cole, and I'm so proud of the man you've become." Anna hugged him.

"I love you too, Anna."

"Now go, before you're trapped." Anna kissed his cheek and smiled.

Cole closed his eyes and thought of Ninjago. He thought of Anna. Despite everything that had happened, he knew this wasn't the end. He would see her again one day. He was content.


	23. Chapter 23

Cole slowly opened his heavy eyelids. He looked around the room and realized he didn't know where he was or how he had gotten there. He tried to turn his neck, but pain shot through his body. When he tried to move his arm, the pain was even worse. He forced himself to stay calm and think. He heard beeping next to him, and he realized the bed wasn't entirely flat and had plastic guardrails. A single lamp near his head was turned on, and he could see the walls were a shade of white. He added everything up and figured he was in the hospital, but he had no clue why he was there. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lou lying down on a bench or cot.

"D… D… D…" Cole tried not to panic as he realized he couldn't speak. He stared up at the ceiling to think. He couldn't move or speak, and he had no idea how he would get his dad's attention. He looked around as best he could. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed the monitors on his chest, the IV in his arm, and he was aware of a tube in his nose. If he could take off the heart monitors, take the IV out, and get the tube out, he could simulate a code blue and nurses would come rushing in. But that required movement. And movement hurt. Cole waited nearly ten minutes, but no one came, so he started mentally preparing for the pain of movement. He took some deep breaths and attempted to raise his right arm.

The pain was worse than anything he had ever experienced before. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. Every little movement made the pain ten times worse. He remembered the tube and he actually succeeded in ripping it out somehow. But the pain was too much. He managed to roll onto his left side and fling his arm over the railing, banging his hand against the plastic guardrail. He gripped it for dear life. The movement caused the heart monitor to fall off and the machine flatlined. The oxygen monitor on his finger fell off, and that machine went into standby mode.

"Oh my gosh! Cole!"

Cole couldn't see anything besides his arm muscles contracting against his will, but he felt Lou lean over him and grab the nurse call button. Tears escaped his eyes as he heard commotion in the hallway.

* * *

At the monastery, Zane woke up at one-thirty in the morning to an alarm. It wasn't the usual alarm to signal trouble in Ninjago. He realized it was an alert from one of the machines monitoring Cole. He quickly read the alert and started to panic. Another alert came in. Then another.

"Cole's heart stopped beating! And he's not breathing!" Zane screamed at the top of his metallic lungs. He ran around, banging on everyone's door, waking them up. More alarms started to go off in Cole's hospital room. They bolted out of their rooms and ran to the _Bounty_. Nya had it up and running in record time.

"They said we would have a few more days! What happened?" Lloyd demanded.

"I do not know," Zane answered.

"We'll be there in less than ten minutes," Nya said from behind the wheel.

"Can you make it five?" Kai asked.

"I'm at max power."

Everyone prayed they weren't too late.

* * *

Lou placed his hand on Cole's back and felt Cole's back muscles spasm repeatedly. Cole had somehow managed to climb on top of the railing and seemed to be stuck there. Nurses and a passing doctor ran into the room to help. They tried to peel Cole off the railing, but stopped when they realized his muscles were more or less locked into place and it was too painful for him to move.

"Okay. Lou, keep him calm. We're going to give him a muscle relaxer and some pain killer. And support him so he doesn't fall off the railing."

"Okay. Just no morphine. He's extremely allergic to that," Lou said.

The nurses rushed into action. They tried to get a gas mask on Cole, but his face was buried under his arm, so they resolved to give him some medicine through his IV, once they managed to inject it into his arm again. Which was not an easy task, since his muscles were still twitching.

"Keep him calm until the medicine kicks in."

Lou nodded and knelt down he could see Cole's face through the holes in the railing. It pained him to see the fear on Cole's face. There were tears in his son's eyes, but Lou didn't know if they were from fear, pain, or both. Cole looked at him.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay." Lou rubbed Cole's arm. Cole's breathing was very shaky, but after several minutes, it started to slow down.

Twenty minutes later, the medicine had kicked in enough to where they felt they could move Cole around without causing him too much pain. Lou carefully pried Cole's fingers off the railing and the nurses moved his right arm. Then they slowly moved his right leg back onto the bed. Within five minutes, Cole was lying on his back. His muscles were still stiff. They put a mask over his face. Cole fought sleep, but the medicine was making him drowsy. He slowly blinked at his dad.

"It's okay. You're safe now. I'll be here when you wake up," Lou whispered as he stroked Cole's hair. Two minutes later, Cole was out. A minute after that, the ninja came running into the room, followed by security. A nurse quickly ushered them into the hallway. The ninja were all talking over each other, so the nurse waited until they quieted down before speaking.

"Cole woke up."

"Can we see him?" Jay asked.

"No. He's resting, and we need to do some tests first. We will let you know when he is ready for visitors."


	24. Chapter 24

Cole was tired. All day long, he had been poked and prodded like a science experiment. He still couldn't move or speak, but everyone seemed to be concerned with his cognitive abilities. At least, that was what he took from the MRI and CT scans. They had shown him pictures of his friends and family, as well as of random strangers, to see if he knew who any of them were. He didn't know how he was supposed to answer any of their questions, since they knew he couldn't speak. Now, he was finally back in his room, exhausted, and with an EEG cap on his head for the next twenty-four hours. He tried to sleep, but the machines kept loudly beeping. How anyone managed to actually rest in a hospital was beyond him. His dad wasn't helping matters. If anything, he made them worse. The only time his dad had left his side was during the MRI and CT testing.

His dad was talking to him, but Cole wasn't listening. Instead, he stared at the TV and wished someone would turn it on for him. His friends weren't there, so he wanted to know if they were off doing ninja business. He also wanted to know what day it was. Though it only felt like a long day he was with Anna, he remembered what she had told him about time moving differently in the Departed Realm. He hadn't been in the Departed Realm, though, so surely it couldn't have been more than a few days, a week at most.

The next day, Lou finally left Cole and allowed his friends to visit. The nurses only allowed two in at a time, but that was better than nothing. Wu and Misako came in first. Cole guessed the others were fighting over who got to come up first. They said some vague "we're glad you're getting better" spiel, but that was about it. Jay and Nya came in next. They said similar vague statements as Wu and Misako. He also noticed that they didn't have wedding rings on, so he assumed he hadn't missed the wedding. While they were speaking, Cole got thirsty. He stared at the bucket of ice chips on the table near him, trying to will it to move closer to him. He tried to speak, but his voice was still not cooperating. He tried to get Jay or Nya's attention for help, but they were oblivious. Kai and Skylor were just as oblivious to his glances to the bucket. Though Skylor did keep cutting Kai off when Kai started talking about Morgen, or Cole's treatments, or really anything relating to why Cole was in the hospital. Cole made a note to ask about that when he had his voice back. Lloyd and Zane also seemed to avoid talking certain subjects, though at least Zane noticed Cole kept looking at the bucket of ice chips and gave him some. As the ice melted in his mouth, it felt good on his throat, but it wasn't enough to satisfy his thirst. Still, he figured he could try to talk now.

"… -ow…" Cole squeaked out.

"Don't try to talk. The doctor said you need to rest," Lloyd said.

"Are you in pain?" Zane asked.

Cole glared at the nindroid. Of course he was in pain. Every muscle in his body hurt. Muscles he didn't even know he had hurt. Only when he was completely still did the pain subside a little. Are you in pain, what kind of a dumb question was that?

The next day was more of the same. More testing, then friends and family would visit and talk at him. Not to him, at him. And everyone pretty much said the exact same fake sympathy lines. Just like they did when Anna died. Cole decided he would either learn how to talk back to people or blow out his voice permanently trying.

That evening, the doctors agreed to let Cole try solid food to see how it affected him. The nurse placed the tray with the white goop in front of him. He spat the bite the nurse had given him out. Grits. He liked grits well enough if they were prepared right, but these definitely were not prepared right. No salt, no butter, and on top of that, they were instant grits. He could forgive the hospital for using instant grits, but not the lack of flavor. What was next, cornbread from a box? He wondered how they expected him to eat this abomination, and not just because he couldn't move his arms.

"I'll feed him," Lou offered upon seeing Cole refuse food.

"Alright." The nurse got up and left them alone.

"It's been a while since I've done this," Lou muttered as he scooped some grits onto the spoon.

"-utter," Cole squeaked.

"Water?"

"Bu-Butter." It sounded like Cole had laryngitis.

"Butter?"

"Yeah." Cole's throat was starting to hurt from the strain. He waited silently as Lou went to inquire about butter. He stared at the bowl. Whoever came up with the idea of instant grits needed a slap to the back of the head. Why did that make him think of Anna?

"They are refusing to put butter in the grits, but they are going to get you some Jell-O," Lou sighed as he threw the bowl into the trash.

"… Anna…" Cole mumbled.

"What was that?" Lou turned pale.

"Anna."

"Uh… Anna isn't… She's not… here… um…" Lou stuttered.

Did everyone think Cole didn't know Anna had died? He guessed, since they still weren't done testing his cognitive responses. He assumed they thought he had the mind of a one-year-old, the way they kept treating him.

"She… says… she… won…" Cole had to concentrate on each word to make sure he spoke clearly.

"She won? Won what?"

"… Bet."

"Bet? What bet?... Wait, do you mean… No, she did not win. We both lost. There's a difference. And how do you even know about that?" Lou asked.

"I… saw… her."

"You saw her? How? Did you go to the Departed Realm?"

"No… limbo… She… came… and…" Cole couldn't take the pain anymore. He had to stop talking.

"It's okay. You'll get your voice back, and we will talk then. Uh, I'm going to go check on the Jell-O." Lou left the room. Cole knew Lou was going to talk to a doctor or nurse, whoever he ran into first. That, or he really didn't want to tell Cole what the bet was. Either way, Cole wondered if he would ever be able to speak complete sentences again.


	25. Chapter 25

Jay walked down the hall of the hospital. He really needed to speak to Cole alone. He had been trying for the past week, ever since Cole woke up, but he could never get Cole alone. That morning, he told the others he had an errand to run and left right after breakfast. It wasn't that he didn't trust the others, but he knew Cole would sympathize with him more than anyone else would. He didn't even know if Cole would be free to talk at this hour since the doctors usually did all their testing in the morning. Jay was excited when the receptionist told him he could go down.

When he got to Cole's room, he saw Cole and Lou, but also a redheaded man. They had been talking but stopped when Jay entered. Lou glared at Jay.

"Ah, speak of the devil. I got something for ya." The redheaded man with the Celtic accent got up and handed Jay an envelope.

"Uh, what's this?" Jay asked as he opened it.

"A subpoena. I have one for the rest of your friends as well. I'll be by the monastery later to drop them off. Now, I'm meeting Mam for lunch, so until then, Lou, you're mine. I need your focus. We have a lot to discuss. Let's go somewhere quiet." The redheaded man grabbed Lou's arm and dragged him out of the room.

"Who was that?" Jay asked.

"Michael… Only lawyer Dad trusts," Cole whispered.

"Oh. I didn't mean to interrupt, although your dad looked really mad at me."

"Yes… Where's Nya?"

"Huh? Oh, back at the monastery. They don't know I'm here, but I really needed to talk to you alone. See, when we took down Morgen, we found out that she was holding a lot of people prisoner, including this woman who Hermes says is my real mom. And I asked Master Wu about it, but he was cryptic as usual. But I think Hermes is right and I'm adopted. I can't explain it, but I've had suspicions for a while now. But how am I supposed to tell my parents that I know I'm adopted? I mean, I didn't-can't come out and say it, right?" Jay stopped before he started blabbing about stuff Cole didn't know about since he erased it from existence.

"Uh… Who's Hermes?"

"Your grandfather. Morgen's dad? Old Master of Earth? Acts a little crazy at times? Ring a bell?" Jay looked at the confused expression on Cole's face.

"No."

"Really? Huh. Anyway, what am I supposed to do? Libby wants to see me, but I don't know if I should. I mean, what am I supposed to say to her? The woman abandoned me when I was a baby. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

Cole just stared at Jay. A nurse came in just then. She made small talk while she replaced Cole's IV bag and did her tests.

"Seriously, Cole, I don't know what to do," Jay said once the nurse had left.

"Talk to… parents," Cole yawned.

"How can you be tired? You just had a three-month-long nap and you do nothing but lay in bed all day," Jay said.

Cole's eyes went wide. He stared at Jay.

"Three… months?" Cole asked.

"Oh, you didn't know that, did you? And your dad didn't want me to tell you. Uh…"

"Three… months?"

"… Yeah. We weren't sure you were going to make it."

Cole said nothing as he stared at the wall. Jay was rambling, but Cole wasn't paying attention. His breathing became shaky. Cole gasped for breath, but he couldn't get anything in. He put his hands near his throat. His right arm was swelling, especially around the IV site.

"Cole?" Jay asked.

"Can't…" Cole eyed the IV. He cried out as much as he could as he forced his left arm to move and rip the IV line out.

"Woah! What are you doing?" Jay demanded.

"… Mo… Mor…" Cole started to turn blue. Jay pushed the nurse call button as alarms started going off. Nurses rushed in.

"He's coding! Bag him! He's not responding! We need to do a tracheotomy! No, this looks like anaphylaxis, is he allergic to anything? Someone grab an EpiPen!" The nurses scrambled to get Cole breathing again. They were still yelling at each other when Lou and Michael came running in. A nurse ran past them out of the room.

"What happened?" Lou yelled.

"I don't know! We were talking and all of a sudden he couldn't breathe!" Jay explained.

The nurse ran back in with an EpiPen. She quickly prepped it and jabbed it into Cole's leg. It was only a moment or two later when Cole gasped and inhaled a large breath. A few minutes later and his breathing was steady. They gave him an antihistamine and continued to monitor him.

"How did this happen?" Lou demanded.

"I don't know. We were talking, then I accidentally told him he was in a three-month coma, and he looked like he was in shock or something. Then he couldn't breathe and ripped his IV out," Jay stammered.

"Was he given morphine?"

A nurse grabbed the IV bag and examined it.

"We need to test this. Who gave this to him?"

"She did." Jay pointed to the blonde nurse in the pink scrubs with smiley faces.

"I gave him exactly what was prescribed. I went to the pharmacy and asked for meperidine. I followed the procedure to the letter. And it clearly says meperidine on the label. This was not my fault." The nurse crossed her arms. Lou started to say something, but Michael stopped him.

"I want to speak to the hospital director now. I'm a lawyer, and that's my nephew you could have killed. Someone is going to pay for this."

A few of the nurses led Michael out of the room.

"Is Cole going to be alright?" Jay asked after a while.

"He'll be fine, though I am going to recommend canceling his physical therapy today."

"Okay," Lou sighed. He sat down in the chair and put his head in his hands. After several deep breaths, he sat up and pulled out his cell phone.

"Uh, I think I'm just going to go now…" Jay said. He didn't know what else to do. No one looked at him as he backed out of the room.


	26. Chapter 26

ADAs Paul McFravel, Erin Boyle, and Michael Lavinsky had their work cut out for them. Morgen's parents had hired one of the best criminal defense lawyers in all of Ninjago, one who went to questionable lengths to ensure his client won, but the bar association could never find a reason to disbar him. As such, he won almost seventy percent of his cases, higher than most other lawyers. There was a rumor he had accepted this case pro bono for the PR. The three ADAs were hoping for a plea deal, because they knew Morgen's lawyer was aiming for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Furthermore, Morgen's lawyer was headed down a path. He was arguing that the ninja were not the police, so she had been arrested without being read her rights, meaning nothing she told the ninja was admissible in court. If the ADAs weren't careful, this line of thought could result in almost ninety percent of the Kryptarium Prison inmates being released.

The ADAs spent almost two weeks listening to the testimonies of Morgen's prisoners. They all told a similar story: Morgen's goons came after them, outnumbered them, and brought them to her. Some were forced to work on a machine designed to strip an Elemental Master of their powers, but others were just kept locked up. No one knew exactly how many people she had held captive, and no one knew if any of her prisoners had died while in her custody. Even charging Morgen with second-degree murder in relation to Ice's death seemed a stretch, and her lawyer argued he only died because he left her care. The ADAs agreed they would reduce the charge to involuntary manslaughter if she plead guilty to the other charges.

The testimonies of the ninja proved valuable. Even though they were unable to use the recordings Zane had, by piecing together the different stories, they came up with a complete picture of what happened that fateful day.

"At breakfast, Cole got a phone call from Lou's manager, asking him if he knew where his dad was. Cole tried to get a hold of his dad on the phone, but he couldn't. So he went by himself to his dad's house. I offered to go with him, but he said it was probably nothing and he would be back soon enough. He wasn't gone more than an hour before he calls us, saying his dad has been kidnapped," Kai started.

"We rushed over. Cole had called the police, since they were there when we arrived. The house was in shambles, and Cole had a note," Lloyd said.

"What did the note say?" Paul asked.

"'If you wish to see your father again, come alone to the following coordinates: 30 24.0736, 8 -44.2362. You will see a cave just to the right. Enter the cave and go all the way down the left tunnel,'" Zane commented.

"What happened after that?" Erin asked.

"We went with Cole to the cave. There, we saw Lou was in a cage next to Morgen's chair. Lou yelled at us to get out of there, but none of us wanted to leave him, especially Cole. Morgen started taunting him and said she was his mom. I'm not sure he believed her or not. Anyway, once it became clear she was targeting him, we tried to surround him, but she got us with some sort of gas that knocked us out," Jay said.

"I was the only one not rendered unconscious, but she had her minions outnumber me. While I was busy, she captured Cole and threw Lou down another tunnel or a chute-type thing. Then she had her minions throw us in after him. If you want, I have video of the attack," Zane said.

"That would be hearsay. Please continue," Michael said.

"We came to and went back in. Except for Lou, who went to the _Bounty_. Anyway, we explored the cave system and eventually found Cole. He was strapped to a table, and Morgen was doing something to him. She had him hooked up to this machine that was electrocuting him," Nya added.

"Cole was in bad shape when we found him. Nya and I shut the machine off, and he was unconscious. He started coming to when we were moving him, but he was in a coma by the time we reached St. Albert's," Jay sighed.

"We rushed in while Jay and Nya shut off the machine. I guess Morgen hadn't counted on us returning so soon. She put up a good fight, but she ultimately escaped down a tunnel, and we made the choice to save Cole rather than go after her," Lloyd said.

"Then we rushed him to the hospital," Jay added.

"She knew what she was doing. There must have been a second exit because she started hurling things at the ship with a catapult," Kai said.

"About how long passed between when Morgen sent you down the chute and when you found Cole again?" Paul asked.

"An hour and sixteen minutes. It took about ten minutes for the others to wake up after being gassed, twenty-three minutes to find the entrance again, and the rest of the time was spent searching the various tunnels until we found Cole and Morgen," Zane said.

"And do you know exactly what she did to Cole in that time?" Erin asked.

"No. I guess only Cole could tell you that. But Morgen said she wanted Cole's power and she didn't care how she got it," Lloyd admitted.

* * *

While Jay was waiting for his turn to talk to the lawyers, he sat in the hall with Nya and Kai. Zane was with them now, and Lloyd agreed to go to a nearby café and wait for the others, since he was escorted from the building as soon as he was finished. While they waited, Libby came up.

"Hi," Nya said when Jay stayed silent.

"Hello," Libby replied.

"Were you subpoenaed too?" Kai asked.

"Yes… Hello, Jay."

"Oh. Hi." Jay didn't look at her.

"How have you been?"

"Good."

Kai and Nya looked at each other in disbelief.

"Um, I'm not sure if you've gotten my messages or not. But, if you want, we can have dinner together or something. I understand this is awkward for you, but if you'll give me a chance, I'd be happy to explain to you what happened," Libby offered.

"There's nothing to explain. Morgen captured you and held you captive when I was a baby, so I was adopted by my parents. Not that I know how to tell them I know I'm adopted," Jay said.

"Adopted? What happened to your father?"

"I don't know."

Silence. Jay avoided looking at Libby, and Kai and Nya didn't know what to do.

"I have an idea. Why don't you come to the monastery tomorrow night for dinner?" Kai offered. Jay shot him a death glare.

"I'd love to, if it's not a problem," Libby said.

"Of course it's no problem. You can catch up with Master Wu and get to know us better."

"Yeah, we'd love to have you," Nya said.

Jay wished he could turn invisible. Before Libby could respond, Zane and Michael came out. Jay jumped at the chance to go next.

"How are you today, Jay?" Michael said as he closed the door behind them.

"Uh, I've been better. Do you know how's Cole doing? Do they know who gave him the morphine?"

"Not yet. The hospital is still looking into the matter. If Lou is right, and Morgen is behind it, then we will add it into our case against her. If it was just a mix-up, then I will encourage Lou to sue the hospital for negligence."

"Oh."

"Have a seat," Erin offered, gesturing towards the empty chair. Jay sat in it. Paul turned on the recorder.

"Alright, let's begin. Please state your full name, age, and relation to the victim."

"Jay Edward Walker, I'm nineteen, and I'm a ninja with Cole."


	27. Chapter 27

Ceilings were woefully under-designed, Cole decided. Sure, there were a few buildings that had grand ceilings with beautiful designs, but those buildings were usually significant for one reason or another. The average ceiling, specifically the ceiling in his hospital room, needed a serious upgrade. It was a basic white ceiling with tiny green specks all over. If Cole stared long enough, he could make out words or shapes. Already he had found the words "mom," "wow," "love," and "shoe" written in the specks on the ceiling. He wondered if it was possible to die of boredom.

"Good morning, Cole. How are you today? Where's your father?"

Cole looked at his nurse as she entered the room. He liked Nurse Phyllis Crane. She had a grandmotherly demeanor about her, but her Celtic accent reminded him of Anna, as did the way she carried herself, though that was probably because she had served in the military at some point in her life as the pin on her lapel suggested.

"Meeting… lawyer," Cole whispered in response to Nurse Crane's question.

"Ah, alright." Nurse Crane was writing in his chart and not paying attention. When she went to do her daily checks, he tried to get her to give him the remote to the TV, something Lou forgot to do before he left for court. When she failed to notice, Cole went back to staring at the ceiling.

"I've brought your breakfast. You have oatmeal today. I brought you some sugar packets if you want it a tad sweet. Let's get your sitting up some."

"There's… a giant… floating… baby head…" Cole mumbled.

"Where?"

"Ceiling."

Nurse Crane glanced up, saw nothing, and pushed the button to raise the head of the bed. She helped Cole adjust his body so he was comfortable.

"Right, let's get you ready for the day. Physical therapy is in an hour, and I believe the speech therapist will call on you today as well. And Dr. Mesda wants to speak to your father when he gets back," Nurse Crane said as she fed Cole.

"Who?"

"Dr. Mesda is the head of our psychiatric unit. He believes all patients at St. Alberts should have access to his team, not just those who were admitted to his ward. He understands it can be a scary and stressful time when you're in the hospital, especially if you're here for a longer period of time, usually two or more weeks, so he makes his team available to everyone."

Cole did not like where this was going. The doctors had finally stopped with the EEGs and CAT scans, now they wanted some shrink digging around in his innermost thoughts like he was some mental case?

Cole was so distracted he didn't even notice when Nurse Crane left and Brad, his physical therapist whom he hated, came in. Brad didn't care if his patients hated him if that's what motivated them to get better. Cole went through the motions with Brad, and with the speech therapist later. Lunch came, Nurse Crane had to feed him again, but he wasn't that hungry.

A distraction came in the form of his uncles Wil and Ben around three. Cole figured his dad had put them up to it, but he didn't really care since he still didn't have the TV remote. His uncles quickly discovered that conversation was hard, so Wil pulled out a deck of cards for some high-stakes poker, the favorite game among his extended family. Cole wasn't a huge fan of poker, but he knew they thought he was slightly loopy from all the drugs, and he wasn't about to let this opportunity pass him by.

"Don't worry about paying us back right away," Ben joked.

"Yeah, we can just get your dad to cover your debts," Wil added.

They were in the middle of their game when Jay came running in. It took Jay a moment to compose himself when he saw who Cole was with, but he quickly started rambling about his meeting with the ADAs, Kai inviting Libby to the monastery, and he still didn't know what to do about her or his parents.

"… Talk to them," Cole squeaked as he discarded two cards. He thought this conversation was sounding awfully familiar.

"How, Cole? Tell me!" Jay yelled.

"I'm sure this woman has a good reason for leaving you with your adopted parents. If she wants to meet with you then she probably wants to tell you why. I call and raise two thousand," Ben said.

"But Kai knew I didn't want her over, and he invited her to dinner anyway! And Nya backed him up!"

"Call. Which one is Kai again?" Wil asked.

"The red one," Ben said.

"Ah. I can't keep you ninja straight. Cole is one of you, that's all I know."

"Eh. Raise… thousand," Cole said.

"What am I supposed to do? Have dinner with her in silence?" Jay asked.

"I find that very impossible for you to do, and I've only known you for five minutes," Ben muttered under his breath. He called Cole's bet.

"I mean, I'm sure she didn't mean to abandon me when she got captured by Morgen, but my parents could've told me I was adopted," Jay said.

"Call and raise two grand. I told Lou there was something wrong with that woman and he should dump her," Wil said.

"We all did. You, me, Mom, Dad, I think even Misty said he should break up with her. You know it's bad if Misty is saying you should break off your relationship," Ben added.

"Didn't Misty say you should break up with Cordelia?"

"Yes, but Misty is very rarely right about anything. Cole, it's your move."

"Call," Cole mumbled.

"What are you even playing?" Jay asked.

"Five-card draw and I'm going to beat the two of them," Wil said.

"Ha! Don't make me laugh," Ben grinned as he called Wil's bet.

Wil and Ben turned their cards over. Wil had a full house, but Ben had four of a kind. Ben's face dropped, though, when he saw Cole had a royal flush.

"Not fair! Your face is paralyzed," Wil protested.

"And you're on drugs," Ben added.

"And this guy was distracting us!"

"I take… cash or check," Cole said.

"No, we're going again. Give me a chance to win my money back," Ben argued.

"No… tired…" Cole mumbled.

"Oh, come on," Wil pleaded.

"I'll… call Grandpa." Cole wished he could cross his arms, but his uncles got the message. Wil grumbled under his breath as he left to go hunt down an ATM, and Ben huffed as he pulled out a checkbook.

"Uh… am I missing something?" Jay asked after a moment.

"Just that he's the favorite grandchild and Dad would make us pay our debts," Ben explained as he ripped the check out of the book.

Cole smirked at his uncle. Lou came in looking confused.

"Cole, why did Wil call you a cheater?" Lou asked.

"Because that's the only explanation." Ben handed the check to his younger brother. Lou looked at the check and his jaw dropped. Jay managed a peek at the amount.

"Ten thousand six hundred dollars?!" Jay asked.

"He had a freaking royal flush. Wil left to go get the money to pay your cheating kid, and presumably to tell Miranda what happened."

"Like you have to tell Cordelia?" Lou asked. He put the check in his wallet.

"Yeah. I should go. And kid, seriously, just talk to your parents and birth mom." Ben left the room, grumbling.

"Good job, Cole. You managed to do what I never could: put those two in their place," Lou said as he gathered up the cards.

"Eh," Cole said since he couldn't shrug.

"Jay, could you please leave us? I need to talk to Cole privately."

"Oh, sure." Jay stood up and stretched.

"Not going… to therapy," Cole protested.

"Uh… I forgot, I need to meet the others. Bye, Cole." Jay left the room.

"It's mandatory, Cole. Dr. Mesda said it could take as little as two sessions, but he also said you won't be discharged until you go. It's up to you when you want to start," Lou explained.

"Never… TV remote?"

Lou sighed and turned the TV on.


	28. Chapter 28

Cole hated physical therapy, but he had to admit that it was working. Slowly but surely, it was working. The day after he won twenty thousand dollars from his uncles, Brad had him sitting in a recliner. It took Brad and a male nurse nearly ten minutes to get him off the bed, and he was supported by what felt like ten thousand pillows, but he was sitting in the chair. He could also sort of reach the TV remote now. Not that he could actually watch TV with nurses coming in and out all day long to do more tests. He also found talking easier now that there wasn't as much pressure on his lungs. He still wasn't very loud, but at least he wasn't struggling to breathe while talking. Wil showed up around lunchtime, but he only stayed long enough to drop off the cash he owed Cole. Unfortunately, trying to get Cole out of the recliner at the end of the day proved too painful for the ninja, so he ended up sleeping in it.

A couple days later, they managed to get Cole into a wheelchair. Brad wheeled Cole downstairs to the physical therapy room and Lou followed them. The room was huge. Other physical therapists and their patients were scattered around the room, working on their own treatments. There were weight machines, climbing-type machines, a staircase that only had three steps, various tables, mats, various smaller pieces of equipment like straps and exercise balls stored along a wall, and through a glass door they could see a pool. Cole didn't know what he wanted to try out first. Brad wheeled him over to the wall and picked up a one-pound medicine ball. They did some basic exercises with the ball. Cole struggled at times to control the ball, but he pushed through.

Every day for the rest of the week, Cole was wheeled down to the physical therapy room. He mostly either stayed in the wheelchair and worked on his upper body or he was put on a table and given the most painful "massages" ever. At the end of his session Thursday, Brad and another physical therapist managed to get Cole on his feet. It was awkward, especially since at six foot four Cole towered over them, and he was very wobbly and didn't dare try to walk, but he was standing.

The next day, Brad allowed Cole to try what Lou dubbed "The Underworld's Jungle Gym." It was a large structure that had some ladders, trampolines at different angels to bounce medicine balls off of, different types of weights, monkey bars low enough you could grip them while you walked, a rope, and a bench for leg presses. Brad wheeled Cole over to the rope so Cole could try and pull himself up. Cole pulled on the rope and managed to pull himself a couple of inches off the chair before his knees gave out. Brad and Lou immediately rushed to get him fully in the chair. Cole thought maybe he could use his super strength to pull himself up, so he took a deep breath and focused on that. Nothing happened. He tried again, but still his arms refused to glow.

"Cole?" Lou asked when he saw the confused look on Cole's face.

"My powers… they aren't working," Cole said.

"Maybe you're too tired."

Cole wasn't so sure about that, but he resigned himself for the moment. He tried again back in his room, but his dad was adamant that Cole rest, so he did. The next morning, after breakfast, he still couldn't summon his powers. All day he tried to no avail.

The ninja came by, but they didn't seem to notice that Cole barely spoke to them or he seemed down in the dumps. They all told him about the saga of meeting Jay's birth mom, his birth mom meeting his adopted parents, going to the mansion that Jay apparently owned, Libby deciding to move into said mansion, and Jay somehow agreeing to spend weekends at the mansion. Oh and apparently Morgen nearly escaped her holding cell that morning.

The next day, Cole was still distracted and barely speaking. Nurse Crane helped him get ready for the day. He was sort of able to help her get him into a wheelchair. He sighed when he saw his reflection in the metal doors of the elevator. He hated the way he looked. After three and a half months in the hospital, he wasn't expecting much, but he was pale, his hair was longer than he liked and super greasy, and he had a beard and mustache which were going to go just as soon as he could handle a razor. He wasn't so distracted that he didn't notice they got off on the wrong floor.

"Where are we going? Physical therapy is on three. This is level two," Cole asked.

"You aren't going to physical therapy today. You're going to meet with Dr. Mesda," Nurse Crane explained.

"What? I never agreed to this!"

"We discussed it with your father and we all agree you need to go."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Your doctors, the other nurses, and Brad."

Cole grumbled all the way to Dr. Mesda's office. He wished he could get up out of the wheelchair and run out of the hospital. All he could do was cross his arms and pout as he was pushed to the office. Dr. Mesda stood up to greet them. The man looked like he was no older than thirty-five. He had short brown hair, glasses, a purple collared shirt, and a smiley face emoji tie. Cole wondered how anyone was supposed to take this guy seriously. Cole refused to speak until he had Dr. Mesda's word in writing that nothing that was said in the session would be told to anyone else. Not his friends, his dad, nor any of the hospital staff. Cole wanted to get the agreement notarized, but Dr. Mesda assured Cole he was bound by doctor-patient confidentiality.

When Dr. Mesda finally got Cole to start talking, Cole expressed his hatred of the hospital. He hated he was cooped up day in and day out. He hated physical therapy. Then the conversation shifted to his parents. Even Cole was shocked at how much pent-up anger he had towards Lou. He wished Lou had just told him the truth about his real mom a long time ago. He was frustrated with the other ninja because they didn't really listen to him. They cared and wanted him out of the hospital as much as anyone, but he felt they were all terrible listeners. He thought if anyone would sympathize with him about losing his powers, it would be his friends. But no, they were more interested in keeping him up to date on what was going on in Ninjago. He also hated he could speak at barely above a whisper.

"Cole, I want you to come to group therapy tomorrow," Dr. Mesda said at the end of the session.

"Why?" Cole demanded.

"I think it would be beneficial to them to see someone of your prominence there."

"No. I don't want to be the poster boy for mental health."

"It would also benefit you as you would meet new people who are going through similar experiences."

"You have other Elemental Masters who were stripped of their powers?"

"No, but I have some patients who… have familial problems that you may or may not relate to. I believe you would only help each other by meeting."

"… Do I have a choice?" Cole grumbled as he crossed his arms.

"No." Dr. Mesda opened the door and wheeled Cole into the waiting area. Nurse Crane, after agreeing to make sure Cole got to group therapy the next day, took Cole back to his room.


	29. Chapter 29

Cole didn't say a word the whole trip from his room on the sixth floor to the psychiatric ward on the second floor. He silently hoped that with the beard, people wouldn't recognize him. Nurse Crane wheeled him through the door. There were people doing all sorts of activities. A few were painting on easels, one lady was twirling around, an old man sat in a chair with a teddy bear, a woman in the back looked like she was either meditating or sleeping, but most people were just sitting around doing nothing.

"Earth ninja! I'm glad you could join us!" Dr. Mesda said when Nurse Crane wheeled Cole in. For the first time ever, Cole wished he was still a ghost just so he could turn invisible. Dr. Mesda took the controls from Nurse Crane and wheeled Cole over to a table. A young woman about Cole's age sat there alone. She was very beautiful with long, wavy brown hair and she had a tiny mole at the corner of her right eye.

"Cole, this is Nicoletta. Nicoletta, Cole. Oh! I'll be right back. Be nice to each other in the meantime. Bertha! You aren't supposed to have scissors! Bertha!" Dr. Mesda ran across the room, leaving the pair to sit in silence. They looked around the room, bored. It took several minutes for one of them to speak.

"I'm Nikki."

"Cole."

"Is this your first time going to therapy?"

"I had a session yesterday," Cole explained.

"Oh."

Silence. Awkward silence.

"You play any card games?" Cole asked after nearly five minutes. He was honestly surprised this girl hadn't left yet.

"Only Go Fish. You?"

"Yeah. My family is big into Poker and Gin Rummy. Personally, I prefer Tonk."

"Tonk? What is that?"

Cole took out the deck of cards he had hidden in his robe pocket. Nikki had to shuffle the cards since Cole couldn't, but he taught her how to play. She struggled a little bit, but Cole was too tired to really care.

"Are you really one of the ninja?" Nikki asked during their second round.

"… Yes," Cole grumbled.

"Wow. So, what exactly happened? I know you were in a coma, but… how?" The girl started blushing.

"How do you know that?"

"Oh, I follow Kai on social media…"

"Of course you do."

"… And he's been posting updates," Nikki said meekly.

"Of course he has. Note to self: kill Kai," Cole muttered.

"So… what happened?"

"Um, family reunion gone wrong. I don't want to talk about it. What about you?"

"Oh, uh, kind of the same thing. I don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough."

They played cards and didn't talk for another ten minutes until Dr. Mesda was able to wrestle the scissors away from Bertha. Nikki only won one game: the last one, because Dr. Mesda cut the game short and she happened to have less points in her hand when he called everyone into a circle.

Group therapy was torture for Cole. Everyone kept trying to ask him questions about ninja stuff he just didn't want to answer. He eventually just started repeating, "I am not allowed to comment on any ongoing investigation, active assignment, or any mission that has occurred at any point within the past ten years that pertains to any past or present member of the team or its affiliates," whenever anyone tried to ask him anything. Some people still did not take the hint. He glared at Dr. Mesda the rest of the hour and refused to say anything else.

The next day, Cole was forced to return to group therapy. He was taken down early so he could socialize with the other patients, but he ended up just playing Tonk with Nikki again. They sat in silence for a while.

"Could I ask you something that might be kind of personal?" Nikki asked.

"Uh, sure. I can't guarantee I'll answer it," Cole replied.

"Just… How are you able to deal with people hating you and trying to hurt you on a daily basis?"

"… Did Dr. Mesda put you up to this?"

"No. I really want to know."

Cole eyed her skeptically, but he thought he saw fear in her eyes.

"Well, when we go to face someone, like the Sons of Garmadon for example, we always have each other's backs. If one of us gets hurt, it's not because we abandoned them in their time of need. I know I was in a coma, but I don't blame the other ninja for that. I know exactly who to blame."

"That woman who was arrested?"

"Huh?"

"Oh. I saw something on the news about a crazy woman who was arrested. They didn't say how she was related to you though," Nikki explained.

"… Yeah. Her."

"Who is she?" Nikki asked quietly.

"No one important. I hadn't seen or thought about her in years, then she turns up out of the blue one day."

"Did you love her?"

"No."

"Are you going to face her again?"

"In court. Until then, I'm going to ignore her. She's done nothing to deserve my attention, so I'm not going to give her any."

Nikki looked away thoughtfully. She didn't say anything else nor did she continue the card game. Eventually, Dr. Mesda called everyone into a circle.

"I guess we can talk more tomorrow," Cole said as he put the cards away.

"Actually, I'm being discharged tomorrow. But thank you, what you said made a lot of sense."

Cole had no idea what she was talking about, but he put it out of his mind as the session began.


	30. Chapter 30

Lloyd softly knocked on the door. It was about nine in the morning. He usually didn't visit this early, but he was on a mission. But no one answered his knock. The door was open, so he stepped inside. He didn't see Lou, but he heard someone in the bathroom and assumed he was in there. Cole was in the bed with the blankets pulled up over his head.

"Cole?" Lloyd asked.

Cole growled. Lou opened the door to the bathroom. Lloyd had to do a double-take. Lou was in the middle of brushing his teeth, his hair was a mess, his shirt wasn't buttoned, and he didn't have on the bowtie. Lloyd had never seen the man not put together before.

"What are you doing here?" Lou asked.

"Uh, I need to ask Cole some questions," Lloyd explained.

"Oh. Well, don't expect much out of him. He just took his medicine not too long ago, so right now he's trying not to throw up."

"Don't they have medicine for that?"

"It hasn't kicked in yet."

"Oh." Lou stepped back into the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day, but he didn't close the door.

Cole slowly lowered the blankets just enough so he could see.

"Hey, Cole, how are you feeling?"

"Eh." Cole slowly forced himself onto his side so he could face Lloyd.

"Well, at least you're getting better. I'm sure you'll be out of here in no time and back to ninja-ing."

"Ha!" Lou yelled from the bathroom.

"He wants me to quit," Cole whispered.

"Why? Never mind. You can't quit. We need you," Lloyd said.

"Lloyd…"

"No, really. Actually, we were called to Ignacia again yesterday. See, some months ago, a huge boulder rolled into the middle of town, and it's been sitting there ever since. It's starting to grow moss, and the people want it gone. The thing is, despite our best efforts, we can't get the darn thing to move. Even Skylor can't move it. The people of Ignacia want to know when you'll be able to help them."

"… I can't."

"I don't mean right now, Cole. Just, do you have an idea of when they might be releasing you?"

"We are cautiously optimistic about next week," Lou said from the bathroom.

"Really? That's great!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"… I still can't help you," Cole said.

"Why not?"

"Because he's going home with me," Lou yelled.

"Are you really going to let your dad start dictating your life?" Lloyd asked.

"… I don't have powers," Cole admitted.

"What?"

"They're gone, Lloyd. I can't…"

"You can't what? Be a ninja?"

"… Trashcan."

"What?"

Lou ran out of the bathroom and barely got the trashcan to Cole in time.

"This is why they're hesitant to release him. The vomiting is getting worse, but they don't know why," Lou explained as he rubbed Cole's back.

Nurse Crane came in, saw Cole vomiting into the trashcan, and kicked Lloyd out.

* * *

Cole was still slightly nauseous at physical therapy, but he was able to hold his lunch down while he floated in the pool. He felt like floating was the only thing he could do on his own. He had just finished a session with Brad and this was his break before heading up to his room for more medicine. He had his eyes closed, but they snapped open when he heard some familiar voices.

"What do you mean you don't have powers?!" Kai demanded.

"Yeah, and why didn't you tell us?" Jay added.

"Are you certain they are gone?" Zane asked.

"When did you find out?" Nya asked.

"Sorry, Cole. They didn't want to wait until you were back in your room," Lloyd explained.

Cole took a deep breath and sank to the bottom of the pool. He did not feel like dealing with this right now. Brad tugged on his arm and pulled him back up to the surface.

"You're done, Cole. I said you couldn't do that again," Brad said as he led Cole to the ramp. An assistant pushed Cole's wheelchair down the ramp into the water slightly so Cole could get in easier. Leaning heavily on Brad, Cole very carefully lowered himself into the chair. Once he was out of the water, someone gave him a towel.

"Start talking, Cole," Kai said.

"Why didn't you tell us you lost your powers?" Jay repeated.

"I tried," Cole said as he dried his face off.

"When?"

"Last week. You're good friends, but you're terrible listeners." Cole wrapped the towel around his shoulders. He wished he had his robe, but he had left it in his room at Brad's insistence. Brad started to push Cole to the elevator. Lou met them in the hallway.

"So they're really gone?" Lloyd asked. Cole nodded.

"But we've been stripped of our powers before. Maybe they'll come back," Kai said.

"No… I don't think so," Cole said.

They tried to ask him more questions, but Cole refused to answer. Once back in his room, the ninja watched as Brad and Lou had to basically lift Cole back into the bed. Cole tried to help them, but his legs were very weak and unsteady. Cole put his robe back on and laid down to wait for Nurse Crane to bring him his afternoon round of medicine. He hoped this time he wouldn't throw up. Lou kicked the ninja out and they reluctantly left.

"… I want to go home," Cole whispered once they were gone.

"Hopefully soon."


	31. Chapter 31

Even though Cole was getting stronger physically, he was struggling to keep food down. Tests were done, but they proved to be inconclusive. The nurses tried changing his medicine, but that did little to help and seemed to make things worse at times. It was a delicate balancing act giving Cole his medicine at the right time so he would be well enough to go to physical therapy or go see Dr. Mesda for a session.

Cole became strong enough to stand unsupported, but he was too weak to maintain it for more than a minute. No matter how Cole got his medicine and nutrients, whether in pill form, liquid form, or through his IV, he couldn't keep anything down. He wished they would just stop giving him medicine altogether. He would rather be in constant pain than be constantly vomiting.

His medical team debated the best course of action. If they kept him in the hospital, they could manage his medicine and continue looking for a cure. If he went home, it would be less stressful for him and he would get more rest. But they also couldn't keep him accountable and make him do his exercises, or take his medicine, or do anything he was supposed to do. They were also worried he would try and rush his healing process. Lou was brought in and gave his opinion. A week went by before a decision was made.

After four months, two weeks, and three days, Cole was finally discharged. As he changed into a clean T-shirt and sweatpants, Nurse Crane brought him a wheelchair.

"What is that?" Cole asked.

"I think you would know what a wheelchair is by now," Nurse Crane replied.

"Correction: why is it here?"

"I have to wheel you out."

"Why?"

"It's hospital policy."

"I spent how much time learning how to walk again, and you won't even let me walk out of here with dignity?"

"Just go with it, Cole. I'll meet you outside," Lou said as he grabbed his suitcase.

Cole grumbled as he sat down. He crossed his arms as Nurse Crane pushed him to the elevator. They ran into Brad in the hallway.

"I guess I won't be seeing you anymore. I've told the new office to expect you," Brad said as he tapped Cole's shoulder.

"Good riddance I say," Cole muttered.

"Take care of yourself."

Nurse Crane pushed Cole outside just as Lou pulled up in the car. Cole squinted as he saw the sun for the first time in months. He refused to let them help him as he climbed into the car.

"Bye, Cole," Nurse Crane said as she waved to him.

"Bye." Cole waved and shut the door. He tried to rest, but his dad insisted on playing opera music on the way home. He wanted to text his friends, but his phone was dead since no one ever bothered to charge it for him once since Morgen's attack.

Cole hated it, but he needed to use one of Lou's old canes to get into the house. Once inside, he started digging through his things looking for a charger.

"Do you need anything right now?" Lou asked.

"A phone charger. Do you have one? I can't find mine," Cole answered.

"Oh, maybe Eric left one here." Lou started looking on the counter.

"Eric?" Cole tried to think of a reason for his aunt's husband to be at their house, but couldn't. He knew Eric and Misty were having marital problems, but they had been having problems for twelve of the thirteen years they had been married.

"Yeah. He volunteered to house sit while you were in the hospital."

"House sit, or get away from Aunt Misty?" Cole joked.

"That's my sister you're talking about. But that's probably it. And I don't really blame him. Uh, try this one." Lou handed the charger over.

"Thanks."

"Do you need anything else? Food?"

"Actually, I'm debating taking either a shower or a nap."

"Go for the shower."

Cole nodded and headed upstairs. After setting his phone up to charge and digging around the hall closet for extra toiletries, he took a nice, hot, forty-five-minute long shower. Granted, he ended up sitting down in the tub for most of it, but it still felt good on his back and neck. Once he was out, he found clean clothes to wear and took a nap until two in the afternoon, when Lou woke him up for his medicine. Cole groaned, grabbed his phone, and slowly made his way downstairs. He turned his phone on and saw he had nearly a hundred texts and missed calls, mostly from the other ninja. Apparently they had thought he was going home the next day, so when they showed up to the hospital and were told he was no longer there, they were very confused. He sent out a group text telling them that he was at his dad's house, but he didn't really feel like having visitors just yet.

"What are you doing?" Lou asked when Cole hadn't spoken in several minutes.

"Trying to construct a Chirp," Cole said without looking up.

"Why?"

"Kai had been keeping people updated, but he tends to spin things to make himself look good. Like, this one post basically says he took down Morgen singlehandedly. I mean, I wasn't there, but I highly doubt that's true. Besides, I'd rather be the one to tell people I'm out of the hospital."

"Hm… I have people who do the social media stuff for me. It's just too complicated," Lou said as he put Cole's medicine on the table in front of him.

"Eh. How does this sound? 'Thank you all for your support these past few months. I wanted to let everyone know that I am now at home resting. I still have a long ways to go before I am back up to full strength, but I hope to be back in the action soon.'"

"Except, you're not going back."

"Dad…"

"We talked about this, Cole."

"You talked, I was trying to keep my breakfast in my stomach," Cole muttered as he posted his Chirp.

"I don't want you out there anymore."

"It's perfectly safe!"

"Perfectly safe? You turned into a ghost for a year! You were sent to another realm! You were in a coma for three months! And that's just the stuff I know about! How is that 'perfectly safe'?"

"What about when Krux and Acronix kidnapped you? What about when Pythor dropped all that lighting equipment on you?"

"I want you to find another job, Cole."

"It's not just a job, Dad."

"I don't care. It's too dangerous, and you're not going back to that monastery ever again. Now, take your medicine."

Cole swallowed his cocktail of medicines and went back upstairs.


	32. Chapter 32

No one answered the door after Jay rang the bell. He and the others were left standing outside Lou's house.

"Should I ring it again?" Jay asked.

"I don't know. Lou's usually quick to answer it," Kai said.

"Are we early?" Nya asked.

"We are late. Cole said to come over at eleven. It is now two minutes past eleven," Zane commented.

"That's not late, Zane," Lloyd said as he rang the bell a second time.

They heard someone stomp over to the door before it flung open. A tall man with gray hair glared at them. His large frame filled the doorframe.

"Uh… do we have the right house?" Jay asked.

"This is the correct address. Unless Lou has moved to a new house," Zane said.

"He's not here right now. I am. Who the heck are you lot?" The man spoke with a thick Celtic accent. He crossed his arms and refused to let them in the house.

"We're here to see Cole," Kai said.

The man didn't move.

"He said we could come over," Jay added.

The man stepped towards them, arms still crossed.

"Who's here, luv?" A petite older woman with gray streaks in her red hair came up behind him. She too spoke with a Celtic accent.

"No idea."

"We're Cole's friends," Lloyd said.

"Oi let them in then." The woman gently slapped the man's arm. He begrudgingly stepped aside and let them in.

"Thank you. Where's Cole?" Kai asked.

"In the restroom. I'm Bea, by the way. That's my husband, Victor."

"That's General Lavinsky to you lot."

"Luv, go back to watching your soccer game. Cole, you can't live in the bathroom!" Bea ran off to attend to Cole. The ninja stood there awkwardly. The General sat down in the recliner in the living room and watched the game on TV.

"Lavinsky? Where have I heard that name before?" Kai asked himself.

"That was the name on the grave Lou visited when Cole first went into a coma," Zane pointed out.

"You're Anna's parents?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes. Be quiet," General Lavinsky snapped.

"Vic, be nice," Bea said. She was helping Cole out of the bathroom.

Cole looked better in the sense that his hair was cut and he had shaved his beard off, but he looked worse in that he was extremely pale, thin, there were dark circles under his eyes, and even though he was leaning against the wall, he looked like he was about to pass out.

"Dude, you look terrible," Jay said.

"Are you okay?" Kai asked.

"Eh." Cole slowly made his way to the couch to lie down. Bea gave him a sports drink, but he only took one tiny sip of it.

"I still say you ought to go back to the hospital," Bea said as she sat down next to him.

"No. No, I'll be fine," Cole mumbled.

"Where's your dad?" Nya asked.

"Work. He's out of money. He needs money."

"I thought your family was rich," Jay said.

"Eh." Cole curled up under a blanket on the couch.

"Let him rest. Maybe you can visit again later," Bea said as she ushered the group to the door.

"She's right. He needs to rest. Oh, we brought him some stuff from the monastery. His laptop, some more clothes, and a couple books," Lloyd said as he handed the bag to Bea.

"I'll be sure to give it to him. It was nice to meet you."

* * *

Cole hated how sick he was. He had been home for five days, and he was sicker than ever. The comments his friends made stuck in his mind, and that was four days ago. He had a doctor's appointment the next day at noon and he was just trying to survive until then. He had a fever, a massive headache, his muscles were still sore, and he was dizzy. On top of that, every time he moved it felt like someone was twisting a knife in his stomach and he was nauseous as all get out.

It was two in the morning, and once again he couldn't sleep even though he was exhausted. He told his dad that he wanted to sleep downstairs on the couch because it was closer to the bathroom, and that was partly true, but the real reason was so he could watch TV when he couldn't sleep at night. Except nothing was on in the middle of the night.

Cole sighed and sat up. He was immediately nauseous again, but he fought it as he made his way into his dad's study and turned the computer on. Not expecting any real results, he typed "why am I throwing up all the time" into the internet search bar. He skimmed through the headlines of thousands of articles about what causes nausea and vomiting and how to cure them. Nothing seemed the likely cause, so he grabbed his pill bottles and started searching for ingredients lists. Maybe they had given him something that was in the morphine family by mistake. He knew his pain medication caused nausea as a side effect, but surely something more had to be going on.

The first two medicines came up with nothing, but when he searched for his anti-nausea pill, one ingredient jumped out at him: vengestone. Another search told him that in addition to neutralizing elemental powers, vengestone was also an excellent remedy for nausea since it acted like a giant sponge for toxins and anything else that might make you sick.

Cole printed the page out and placed it on the kitchen table where his dad was sure to see it. As he looked for a highlighter, his stomach pains started up again and he ran to the bathroom.

* * *

Lou looked over at the clock. It was four-thirty in the morning and he had no idea why he was awake. His alarm wasn't due to go off for another two and a half hours. He needed to sleep if he was to function properly at work. And he needed to go to work since he had blown through his savings while Cole was in the hospital. Still, he was awake and he didn't think he was going to fall back asleep anytime soon. He decided to go downstairs and see if Cole had managed to fall asleep.

He saw some lights on, but he knew Cole kept a light on for when he needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. He glanced in his study and saw the computer was in sleep mode. He turned the light off and went into the kitchen. Only the light above the table was turned on. He picked up a sheet of paper on the table. It was a list of ingredients in one of Cole's medicines. He skimmed it, but nothing stuck out to him. He wandered into the living room and found it empty. Concerned, he went to the bathroom.

"Cole? You in there?" Lou asked as he knocked on the door. There was no answer, so he opened the door.

Cole was lying down on the floor, curled around the toilet. Lou called his name again, but Cole didn't respond. Lou went over and shook Cole's shoulder. Nothing. He felt Cole's pulse, which was rapid. He noticed Cole's breathing was also rapid and shallow. Lou ran and grabbed the first phone he found and phoned for an ambulance.

Paramedics arrived within ten minutes. They quickly loaded Cole into the ambulance and raced towards the hospital. Lou grabbed the paper on the table and stuck it in his pocket as he climbed into the ambulance with them.

Cole was severely dehydrated. The doctor said if Lou had waited a couple more hours, Cole might have died. Now, he was heavily sedated while he received fluids through an IV. Lou showed the paper to the nurses and doctor, but they didn't know why Cole might be reacting to it. They had to wait for Cole to wake up so he could tell them.

Cole woke around two in the afternoon, and he was not happy when he realized he was back in the hospital. He was especially grouchy when he learned there was no chance of being discharged that day and he had to stay the night. A nurse pulled the curtains around his bed closed while she examined him.

"Vengestone takes away my powers," Cole groggily explained when Lou asked him about the paper.

"Really? I didn't know that. I'll talk to the doctor about other medications. Cole, are you alright?" Lou asked when he noticed Cole wasn't looking at him.

"Did they give me vengestone when was in the coma?"

"I don't know."


	33. Chapter 33

Lloyd sighed when no one came to the door after nearly five minutes of knocking. The ninja hadn't heard from Cole in days two and they were worried. He wasn't answering his phone, and no one had been home whenever the ninja came over. The ninja were ready to walk away again when a taxi pulled up to the house. Lou got out of the cab, paid the driver, then walked around to the other side to help Cole out.

"Cole! Where have you been? We've been calling and texting you for like two days!" Jay exclaimed.

Cole didn't respond. Even though he was standing, he looked like he was ready to pass out. Lou struggled to keep Cole upright.

"What happened?" Kai asked as he ran over to help support Cole. It wasn't easy since Cole towered over his dad and all of his friends.

"I found him passed out in the bathroom and had to call an ambulance. The good news is we know what's been making him so sick. Stick him on the couch for now, I have to get ready for work," Lou said as he unlocked the door.

"Work? You just said he was in the hospital," Lloyd said.

"Yes, and the hospital wants money, something I am low on at the moment. Therefore, I have to go to work. Bea and the General will be here soon. And if you could make sure he eats this when it's done, I would greatly appreciate it," Lou said as he put some bread into the toaster before running upstairs.

"Cole? What happened?" Jay asked.

Cole, who was already nearly asleep on the couch, groaned and opened an eye.

"Why didn't you tell us you were back in the hospital?" Nya asked.

"Not my choice. Woke up there, didn't have my phone," Cole yawned.

"What happened?" Zane asked.

"Did you know they put vengestone in anti-nausea drugs?"

"They do?" Kai asked.

"Yes. And maybe other stuff as well… Supposedly it's really effective."

"Cole is correct. Vengestone is an effective remedy for nausea and vomiting," Zane added.

"Zane, why didn't you tell us that sooner?" Jay asked.

"You did not ask, and no one was ever sick enough to need those medicines. I assumed the doctors would know to not give them to Cole, or Lou would tell them not to."

"Dad didn't even know what vengestone was until I told him. I don't know if the doctors knew it was in the medicine or not," Cole yawned. He pulled the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes.

Everyone else made their way into the kitchen while Cole rested.

"Vengestone in medicine?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Zane said.

"I guess that's why Cole said he lost his powers. How long until they come back?" Kai asked.

"It is too soon to tell. We have never taken vengestone internally before, so I am unable to determine how long it will take, if it leaves his system at all."

"If? He might not get his powers back?" Jay loudly asked.

"Shh. Cole's been through enough already. I don't want him to worry about this. Right now, he just needs to get better," Lloyd said.

"Agreed," Kai said. The others nodded.

The toast popped up just then. It was completely black and starting to smoke. They threw it out and got new toast cooking, after they turned the timer down. Once it was done, Zane put butter and grape jelly on the toast and took it to the living room. Cole was asleep.

"Cole? Wake up, your dad said you had to eat," Lloyd said as he shook Cole's shoulder.

Cole groaned as he sat up. He took the plate from Zane. He stared at the toast.

"You need to eat something," Nya said gently.

"… This looks like toast," Cole said after a while.

"It is toast," Kai said.

"Your father said you had to eat," Zane added.

"Who threw away perfectly good toast?" Lou yelled from the kitchen. No one had noticed him come downstairs.

"It was burned to a crisp!" Kai yelled back.

"It was still good! Just scrape off the black parts."

"It was all black! It looked like Kai tried to cook it with the Sword of Fire!" Jay yelled.

Cole smiled for the first time in months and took a bite of toast. Lou came in, dressed in his uniform, lectured Cole about eating everything on his plate, and ran out of the house.

"Doesn't your dad know you at all? Why lecture you about eating?" Jay joked.

"Maybe because I'm six foot four and only weighed a hundred twenty pounds after they pumped me full of fluids," Cole said as he took another bite.

"What?!" Kai, Jay, and Lloyd yelled simultaneously.

"That's dangerously underweight for someone of your size," Zane said.

"I'm surprised they let you out of the hospital," Nya added.

Cole shrugged. He took another bite and put the plate down on the coffee table.

"Dude, you have to eat more than just half a piece of toast," Jay said.

"I'm not that hungry, and I'm not positive I won't get sick again," Cole yawned. He curled up under the blankets and fell asleep. The ninja tried to wake him, but this time he rolled over onto his side so he wasn't facing them. Not even when Lloyd's cellphone started to ring did he wake up.

"Hi, Dareth… Woah, slow down, I can't understand you. You're where? … Jail? … Accessory to murder? … I'll be there shortly." Lloyd sighed and looked at his teammates.

"Would you like me to come with you?" Zane offered.

"Please. The rest of you, stay here I guess."

As soon as Lloyd and Zane left, Kai found the remote and turned the TV onto the news. They had to wait for the weather report to finish, then they waited for other stories to be told, then they cut to a reporter outside of Laughy's.

"Yes, I'm here outside of Laughy's Karaoke Bar in Ninjago City owned by Dareth Brown. Brown was arrested here earlier today. The police declined to comment at this time, but an anonymous source told me that his arrest is in connection with the attempts on the life of Earth Ninja, Cole Burtchenelli. Brown is affiliated with the ninja, and they used the dojo he used to own as a place to train Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon. This revelation is truly shocking. We will release more information as it becomes available. Back to you, Denise."

"They can't seriously believe Dareth tried to kill Cole, right? It was Morgen," Kai asked.

"She tried to kill him in the cave, but she's been denying any involvement in the morphine incident," Jay said.

"Of course she is, but I thought that was just a mix-up."

"You weren't there, Kai. I was. A nurse came in, hooked the bag up to Cole's IV, the next thing I know, Cole can't breathe. There's no way any hospital worth its salt would knowingly give a patient a medication they're allergic to. No way that was a mix-up."

"I'm with Jay. Someone was behind it," Nya added.

"But Dareth?" Kai asked.


	34. Chapter 34

Now that he was off the medicine with vengestone in it, Cole slowly began to get better. His new medicine made him incredibly tired and he ended up sleeping sixteen to twenty hours a day, but he wasn't throwing up nearly as much. He was able to keep more food down, so he started to put on some much needed weight. His strength slowly returned as a result. He still couldn't access his powers and that concerned him.

Unfortunately, Lou was adamant that Cole quit being a ninja, and what Dareth did seemed to seal the deal in Lou's mind. Dareth admitted to pressuring the pharmacist in the hospital to giving Cole morphine, but he insisted that he was threatened by someone he didn't know. The pharmacist admitted to getting a threatening phone call after Dareth confronted him, but since the police couldn't prove who was behind it, Dareth and the pharmacist were on the hook.

Cole hated living with his dad again. He knew his dad meant well, but Lou was incredibly overbearing and overprotective. Half the time, Lou didn't let the ninja come over. Cole agreed to wait until he was medically cleared to go back, but Lou was having none of it. After only two weeks, Cole had had enough. He knew Lou would throw a fit if Cole went back to the monastery, so he decided to go to the one place he knew Lou could not and would not fight him on.

"FYI, I'm no longer at my dad's place. I'm going to stay at my grandparents' house for a while. Give me a few days to settle in, and I'll send you the address," Cole texted his friends. He was confused when they started asking about a Hermes and Kelly, but he quickly corrected them and said he was staying with his dad's parents.

"Who are Hermes and Kelly?" Cole asked himself.

"Morgen's parents. I guess you'll meet them when you testify," Lou said without looking away from the road.

Cole sighed. He was hoping Morgen would plead guilty so he wouldn't have to face her in court, but that didn't look like it was going to happen. He stared out the window as Lou turned onto the dirt road that led to a gate almost ten minutes later. Once Lou put in the code for the gate to open, it was another three minutes until they pulled up to the mansion in the woods. Lou followed the large, circular driveway around and parked the car in front of the pathway leading to the house. An old woman came running down the steps as they got out of the car.

"There they are. I was wondering what had happened to you. I thought you would be here an hour ago!"

"Hi, Nana," Cole said as he hugged her.

"Sorry we're late, Mom. We ran into traffic, then this one got sick and I had to pull over," Lou said, kissing his mother on the cheek.

"Well, next time, I'll just throw up in the car," Cole said. He grabbed his suitcase and headed up the steps.

"I just hope the food isn't dried out. I've kept it warm. Cole, your grandfather is out on the patio. Could you please tell him I'm serving lunch now?"

"Of course." Cole walked through the foyer, down the hall, past the dining room, put his suitcase down at the bottom of the stairs, and then went out the back door next to the kitchen. He found his grandfather sitting in a chair playing a game on his tablet.

"Grandpa?" Cole asked.

"Cole! How's my favorite grandchild?" The old man struggled to stand up and Cole offered his arm for support. Once up, he embraced his grandson.

"Better. I'm not a hundred percent yet, but I'm getting there. How are you?"

"Oh, still alive. Is lunch ready yet?"

"Yes, Nana is setting the table now."

"Good. Hand me my cane. I'm glad to see you up and about. Last time I saw you, you were at death's door. Course, Lou said he was gonna pull the plug on you so I needed to come say goodbye."

"What?" No one had told Cole that they had taken him off life support right before he woke up from his coma because they didn't know how to tell him, and also because they felt he didn't need to know that small detail.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get down to see you when you woke up."

"I understand, Grandpa," Cole said, only half-listening. He knew his grandfather had been in a bad motorcycle accident years and years ago, when Lou was seven or eight years old, and it had affected his mobility ever since and nearly ended his career.

Giovanni Burtchenelli was to cowboy movies what Cliff Gordon was to space movies. Giovanni's most famous character, who he appeared as in most of his cowboy films, was The Mysterious Man in Black, a ruthless mercenary and bounty hunter with no name who let his actions speak for him. He went from town to town in search of gold, occasionally helping a damsel in distress, and getting into countless fights in the lawless towns which he always won. But Giovanni refused to be typecast and was always willing to branch out into other genres. He was on the set of a spy movie when he had his accident. It was nearly two years before he tried to act again. Another movie was made starring The Mysterious Man in Black, and the character's signature limp made its debut. The producers were skeptical if the film series could continue, but it did well enough they made four more movies before audiences moved on to space operas.

"What's this about you pulling the plug on me?" Cole asked as they went inside the house.

"Dad! I said NOT to tell him that!" Lou growled.

"What, I thought he knew," Giovanni said as he shuffled over to the dining room.

Cole followed before he stopped dead in his tracks. The sheer amount of food on the table made his stomach hurt just by looking at it. There was a roast, some cornbread, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and fried okra. Cole's grandmother had driven out any pickiness he had by the time Cole was five, so there was very little Cole wouldn't eat, but he absolutely hated fried okra. Cole took a step backward and walked into his dad.

"Just eat what you can," Lou said, walking around Cole.

"Right… Maybe just a slice of cornbread," Cole mumbled to himself.

"Just cornbread? Cole, you're nothing but skin and bones. You have to eat more than just cornbread." Not for the first time, Cole silently cursed himself for forgetting about his grandmother's super hearing.

"Nana, I don't think I can."

"Cole!"

"If he eats, you can't get offended when he throws up in twenty minutes," Lou said.

"Then you should see a doctor."

"… I've been seeing doctors. And I am getting better. I'm only throwing up two or three times a day now instead of twenty," Cole said.

"He's not exaggerating. If anything, he's downplaying just how sick he was," Lou added.

"Oh, my word. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'll be fine, Nana."


	35. Chapter 35

Cole was amazed at how incompetent his friends seemed to be. He gave them the address to his grandparents' mansion, he told them they would have to turn onto a dirt road, he gave them a map to said dirt road, he told them the online maps weren't accurate, yet even Zane couldn't seem to find the place. He knew his grandparents wanted to live in a hard-to-find place, but this was ridicules. He would meet them in the nearby town and have them follow him back, but he wasn't allowed to drive, his grandfather couldn't see well enough to drive, and his grandmother hated driving. He finally had a chance to see them when he learned his aunt insisted on taking her parents- and by extension him- to a new exhibit at the modern art museum in Bosniak, the town closest to where his grandparents lived.

Cole was not comfortable with his aunt Misty driving them to the museum. He already didn't want to go, even if he did get to see his friends, but now he had to hope he would make it to the museum alive. Even if he wasn't already nauseous, he doubted he could make it that far without getting sick in her car.

"Mystic Helaine! Slow down! I'm not paying for another speeding ticket!" Giovanni yelled from the backseat.

"Relax, Dad. I haven't gotten a ticket since I was, like, forty-five. And I can pay for my own tickets. After all, I am a fashion icon," Misty said. She swerved into the other lane to avoid hitting a squirrel before her parents could say anything and violently swerved back into her lane just before they hit another car.

"Grandpa, can I have money so I can take a taxi home?" Cole asked after they had parked and Misty was out of earshot.

"We'll see." Giovanni shuffled ahead to catch up to his wife and daughter.

To add insult to injury, Cole's phone buzzed just then, and Cole opened it to a text saying the ninja were called away for important ninja business in Jamanakai Village and wouldn't be able to make it. He sighed as he followed his family through the museum. He didn't even try to act interested.

Most of the sculptures were abstract pieces made of unusual materials, such as the pillar of fan blades. He didn't get it. As he walked through the museum, he swore artists were getting lazier. The paintings were even worse. There was actually a painting of a black sheet of paper hanging on the wall of the museum.

"Oh, come on. I could do that!" Cole complained.

"You don't understand, Cody," Misty started.

"Not my name."

"This is when Raphael DeLeando was depressed, and he saw the world as a swirling black vortex waiting to consume him. In a desperate cry for help, he grabbed a brush and poured his heart and soul into this very painting."

"… It's a piece of black paper."

"You have to let it speak to you, Cody."

"Not my name."

"You need to appreciate what you see in front of you. Now, what does this painting tell you?" Misty led Cole over to another painting. There was gold paint splattered on black and white patches. Cole stared at it and sighed when he realized his aunt was expecting an answer.

"It says someone dumped glitter on a cow."

Giovanni burst out laughing and Helaine rubbed her forehead in an attempt not to laugh.

"Hmph. You people just don't know how to appreciate fine art." Misty stormed away.

"Whatever. I'm going to go look for the cafeteria," Cole said. Truthfully, he only wanted water, but he didn't know if he could stand another art lesson and needed to get away. Giovanni gave him some money and Cole walked away.

The art museum was four stories tall, and Cole didn't know which floor the cafeteria was on. He guessed the first floor, but when he got down there, he found a map which said it was actually on the fourth floor. He groaned and went over to the elevator to wait with the crowd.

"Cole?"

Cole turned, expecting to see a fan who recognized him, but instead, he saw the girl from the hospital.

"Hi. I don't know if you remember me or not."

"No, yeah… uh…" He was mentally kicking himself for not remembering her name.

"Nikki."

"Right. Hi. How have you been?"

"Good. How about you?"

"Good," Cole replied.

"Are, uh… Are the other ninja here?"

"No. No, I'm here with my grandparents. The doctors don't want me chasing after bad guys quite yet."

"… Have you seen the new glass exhibit yet?" Nikki asked awkwardly.

"Yeah. We already saw it."

"Oh. Is it good?"

"It is. I thought the Neon Tumbleweed was cool. And there's this chandelier thing that, in my opinion, looks a bit like an alien head."

"I'll have to keep an eye out for that."

The elevator arrived and the pair rode it up to the fourth floor. They followed the crowd to the cafeteria. They each grabbed a tray, even though Cole didn't think he would eat anything, and slowly went through the line. When Cole passed a display of fries, he decided they looked good and grabbed them. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually wanted to eat something instead of being forced to eat. The cashier gave him a weird look when he paid for his fries and bottle of water, but he didn't care. He found an empty table in the corner and made a beeline for it.

"Mind if I sit with you for a moment? My parents were headed up, but I don't think they've made it yet," Nikki asked.

"Go ahead."

"So what do you think of the rest of the museum?" Nikki asked as she took a bite of food.

"Eh. I think I would like it better if my aunt wasn't all 'the paintings are speaking to you, you just need to listen to them.'"

"What?"

"Her words, not mine."

"Wow. I have a friend who works in the gift shop downstairs, and she could tell you stories about the artsy people who come through here acting all holier than thou. She says the art appreciation majors are some of the worse," Nikki explained.

"I can see that," Cole chuckled.

The two continued to talk while they ate until Cole's phone buzzed. He frowned as he read the text.

"Do the other ninja need you?" Nikki asked.

"No. They're in Jamanakai Village. My grandfather says I've been gone forty-five minutes and I need to get back."

"Forty-five minutes? That can't be right." Nikki took her own phone out and looked at the time. She then turned around and saw her parents sitting at a nearby table.

"Uh, I don't know if I'll see again or not," Cole said as he gathered his trash.

"Do you live in Bosniak?"

"Sort of? My grandparents' house is about half an hour outside of town. But I'm not allowed to drive right now because of the medicine I'm on."

"Well, maybe I'll see you the next time you come to town. Or, you could text me if you're coming into town?"

"I would need your number for that," Cole said as he gave Nikki his phone. When she gave it back to him, he quickly sent her a text with his name to make sure it went through.

"Okay then. I guess I'll see you around." Nikki grabbed her tray and went to her parents' table.

Cole threw his trash away and went off to look for his family. As he did, he smiled at the thought of texting Nikki.


	36. Chapter 36

Cole didn't want to celebrate his grandfather's birthday. He had had a bad past few days and wanted nothing more than to hide under his covers and block the world out. Helaine told him hiding from the world was not an option and to help her clean. He did, then he sat in the living room in the front of the mansion and pretended to watch TV while his extended family showed up.

First to arrive was Wil, his wife, Miranda, and their children, Adelaide, Cyril, Giselle, and Lionel. Next Ben, his wife, Cordelia and children, Lydia, Matthias, Nathaniel, Angelina, and Sylvia. Their oldest, Zachariah, was unable to attend as he was currently in Kryptarium serving a ten-year sentence. Every day Zach sat in jail, Cole felt smug, since his older cousin had always tormented him when they were children. As Adelaide, Cyril, Giselle, Lydia, and Matthias were all married, their spouses also came to the party, as well as Adelaide's three children, Cyril's two children, and Lydia's infant daughter. Misty and her husband, inventor and Borg's top rival Eric Nagel arrived in two separate cars. Lou was the last to show up.

While they waited for the food to finish cooking, the adults decided to play a friendly game of high-stakes poker. Helaine sat out, as she was cooking, and Lionel was banned from the table since he was a professional. He sat in the living room and watched TV with Lydia, Angelina, Sylvia, and the small children. Everyone talked about the trial, about Morgan, and Cole wished he could tune everyone out. When he was asked about his testimony, he said he didn't want to talk about it and refused to say anything more. Cole didn't want to play at all, but Giovanni said he had to socialize with the family. Cole silently sulked through a few rounds before he managed to excuse himself and went outside. He could feel their eyes on him as he left.

He wasn't that far from the house when he heard someone follow him. He turned and saw Eric coming up the path behind him.

"I thought you would be inside playing," Cole said.

"Please, if I lose anymore, I'd have to start betting shares of the company. And your grandfather already owns ninety percent of Mystitech," Eric sighed.

"Really? I thought it was less than that."

"No. He owns me. I've tried to buy back some shares, but he won't hear of it. I really hate to admit this, but I should've listened to Misty. I never should've gone to him for help."

Cole didn't say anything. He sat down and leaned against a tree, deep in thought. He tried not to think about the trial or his testimony, so he forced himself to think about the card game he had just left. Eric sat down next to him.

"…The game was rigged, wasn't it?" Cole asked after a while.

"What do you mean?"

"I won a hundred and forty-five thousand dollars on a pair. Not even two pairs, just one."

"Cole, I think you're overreacting," Eric argued.

"Just admit it. I saw how most people would fold after I did. What about the way everyone was scrambling to get rid of their cards after I said I wasn't going to join another round? The game was rigged. I know my family. They're too proud to just give me money and Dad's too proud to accept it. And he has what has got to be the worst poker face in history, so of course him winning the cash would be way too obvious. I don't even know why they want to help. They all hate me."

"They don't hate you, Cole."

Cole gave Eric a look that said Eric was full of it. He knew the divorce had tainted his relatives' views of Morgen, and by extension, him. That combined with his lack of interest in going into a performing art meant they didn't hold him in high regard. Lionel was able to escape the same fate by making his fortune through poker. Cole didn't have a fortune. The money he had won that night combined with the money he had won in the hospital was pretty much all the money he had. Being a ninja, he didn't need a lot of money. Wu paid for most of their things, and in return, they had to maintain cleanliness around the monastery and _Bounty_.

"… Giovanni made us. Though I didn't have to fake having bad hands," Eric admitted.

Cole wished he could smile at the bad joke. Instead, he pulled his knees to his chest and buried his head in his arms.

"What's wrong?" Eric asked.

"You wouldn't understand," Cole said. He picked up a rock and held it in his hand.

"Try me, kid."

"…Morgen's lawyer made me look like a complete fool. I told them what she did to me, and he unpicked every single thing I said. He said I was unreliable and biased against her. He said I didn't know what I was talking about, because I went into a coma immediately after I was freed from her captivity. He said she didn't take my powers, that it was the vengestone in the medicine the hospital gave me. He said she was locked up and had nothing to do with the nurse giving me morphine. He argued that I shouldn't have even been in that cave since 'the ninja aren't officers of the law and have no power to arrest someone.' If they play their cards right, I could be the one going to jail, not her." Cole threw the rock and hugged his knees.

"Cole, no judge is going to send you to jail."

"Even so, Morgen's going to go free, and it's my fault."

"It's not your fault. I never met Morgen, but from what everyone's been saying, I highly doubt she'll go free. Especially after she kidnapped your dad and nearly killed you."

"It gets worse… The doctor said it could take five or ten years for the vengestone to fully leave my system, and even if it does, I may never get my powers back. Dad might get his wish. I may never be a ninja again." Cole refused to look at Eric while he spoke.

"Cole, even if you can't be a ninja anymore, your life isn't over. When Borg fired me, I could have let it destroy me. Instead, I used my knowledge to start my own company, and now I'm giving Borg a run for his money. I'm sure you will find something else you can do if you have to quit. And even that's not a certainty yet."

Cole sighed and buried his head in his arms again. He appreciated what his uncle was trying to do, but he really wanted to be alone right now.

"Cole, please talk to me?" Eric asked.

"… I'm scared, and I don't know what to do," Cole admitted.


	37. Chapter 37

Cole threw his phone over the railing into the grass. He had just gotten back from Ninjago City where he finally met Morgen and her parents. It was horrible. The trial was officially moving into a courtroom in two weeks. He tried to call Nikki when he got back to his grandparents' house, but his phone wasn't cooperating.

"Are you okay?"

Cole turned and saw Eric standing in the door.

"Sure," Cole mumbled.

"So why did you throw your phone?" Eric asked as he stepped onto the back deck.

"Because… it's a stupid phone, it's always running out of storage space, it's slow, and I hate it."

Eric sighed as he walked down the steps into the yard. Cole's phone was surprisingly undamaged from the fall.

"Holy cow, how old is this phone?" Eric asked as he came back up.

"I don't know. I only have three or four apps on it, but they never stay on the SD card, so it never has any storage space."

"Yeah, I'm getting you another phone. Can't have family walking around with the competition's phone."

"As long as it fits in my pocket," Cole mumbled.

"Giovanni told me the trial isn't going so well," Eric said as he sat down at the table with Cole. He started fiddling around with the phone, but eventually placed it on the table.

"That would be an understatement." Cole crossed his arms.

"Right. Well, I can't make the trial end any sooner, but I think I can cheer you up. You like FSM, right?"

"They're my favorite band."

"Yeah, I like them too. Anyway, I have a four-pack of backstage passes and front row tickets for their concert next weekend in Ninjago City. I was going to go with Misty and a couple of our friends, but Misty has decided that she is not going, and our friends won't go if she doesn't go. Which means I have three extra tickets, and I was wondering if you could give them to people. I don't even care about them paying me back for the cost of the tickets."

"I'm sure I can find people to take those extra tickets."

"Good. So tell me about this girl you've been seeing. Giovanni says you've been hanging out a lot in town with her."

"We're just friends."

* * *

Jay sighed as he stood in line with Kai, Nya, Skylor, and Lloyd. They were waiting in line outside of the Ninjago City College Arena for the FSM concert. Zane didn't want to come to a concert because he didn't understand why they were fun when all the music was available online. Cole was inside already. He told them his uncle had an extra backstage pass to meet the band, but they could try and meet on the concourse before it started.

"This is taking forever!" Jay whined.

"Patience, Jay," Lloyd said.

"They're supposed to open the doors at six. It's six-ten. Why aren't the doors open?"

"I'm sure they'll open soon," Nya said.

"Woah, who's that?" Kai asked, looking at his phone. Everyone gathered around and saw Cole had posted some pictures. They were him, Giovanni, a man about his dad's age, and a beautiful girl about Cole's age meeting the band.

"Cole's in a jacket? Why is Cole in a jacket? It's the middle of summer," Lloyd commented.

"That's Eric Nagel! How does Cole know who Eric Nagel is?" Jay asked.

"Who?" Skylor asked.

"Eric Nagel! Cyrus Borg's top rival. He owns Mystitech. They're developing a smart house that's supposed to hit the market in a couple of years. Supposedly there's one out there now, but no one knows who has it. I have to meet him!" Jay rambled.

"I wasn't talking about Eric Nagel. I was talking about the girl," Kai said.

"Maybe she's his cousin? He did say his uncle had an extra backstage pass," Nya pointed out.

"No. Remember a few weeks ago, they posted all those pictures from his grandfather's birthday? She wasn't there." To prove his point, Kai went to Cole's timeline and found the pictures he was talking about. One picture was of Giovanni and Helaine, one was of Giovanni with Wil, Misty, Ben, and Lou, the next was of Giovanni and all of his grandchildren, and the last picture was of Giovanni with his great-grandchildren. The girl in the pictures with the band was not in any of the pictures at the birthday party.

"Is she tagged?" Lloyd asked.

"Um… yeah. Nikki Konstantinopolites."

"Besides, his uncles are Wil Burton and Ben Burton," Jay said.

"The actor and singer?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes. They use stage names. How does he know Eric Nagel? Ugh. I'm gonna call him." Jay's call almost immediately went to voicemail, but Cole quickly texted Jay, saying it was too loud inside to take a call.

"Jay, calm down. Look, they're about to open the doors. We'll find Cole inside and talk to him," Nya said, taking his hand.

The doors opened and the crowd surged forward. Bags were searched while tickets were scanned. Once the entire group made it inside, they found a semi-empty corner to regroup.

"I think we should get our food now, before it starts. We still have to find our seats, and we're near the top row," Lloyd shouted over the crowd.

"Agreed. Let's find our seats, then if there's time, we'll see if we can meet up with Cole," Kai yelled.

The group waited in line for nearly half an hour for their food, then they had to climb up to their seats four rows from the top of the stadium seating.

"I thought you were ninja and famous and stuff," Skylor panted.

"We are," Kai said.

"Then why are we in the nosebleed seats?"

"Lloyd's the one who bought the tickets."

"It's all that was available. We waited until the last minute to decide to come here tonight," Lloyd argued.

The group eventually made it to their seats, which were in the middle of the row. Everyone in the surrounding seats wanted pictures with the group.

"We're not going to see Cole before it starts," Jay sighed. Nya put her hand on his shoulder. They saw a large group of people come out from presumably backstage and make their way to the front group of chairs on the floor. Kai texted Cole, asking where he was, and Cole sent a pic of the stage from the front row in response.

"Jealous," Skylor said as she looked over Kai's shoulder.

"Oh, look at this!" Jay handed his phone over to Kai. He was looking at a picture posted by Eric. Cole had taken a selfie of him, Eric, and Giovanni on Eric's phone, while conveniently framing it so the would-be photo bombers were cut out. The caption said, "Fun evening out with my FIL and nephew at the FSM concert," and he tagged Cole.

It wasn't long before the opening act came on stage. The ninja, like most people in the crowd, finished their dinners while the singer did her set. Lloyd had his phone out to take a video when a notification popped up on his screen.

"Cole just updated his relationship status!" Lloyd yelled over the music.

"What?!" Everyone else got out their phones and saw that Cole and Nikki were officially in a relationship. He had also changed his profile picture to a group shot of him, Nikki, Eric, Giovanni, and the band.

"Who is this girl?" Jay asked as he clicked on her profile. Since he wasn't friends with her online, he could only see her profile picture which was of her and her mother.

"I don't know, but one way or another, I'm going to find Cole and ask him before the night is over." Kai looked at his friends, who nodded in agreement, before settling in to enjoy the concert.


	38. Chapter 38

Nikki tried to hide her nerves, but she didn't think it was working. Ever since she and Cole officially became a couple almost a week earlier, she had been bombarded online. The number of followers she had tripled overnight. Most of the comments were a generic congratulations, but there were some hurtful comments from jealous fans and a few of Cole's cousins. Plus, she still hadn't met the ninja. She knew they were hounding Cole, trying to arrange a meeting. She would have been okay with meeting them real fast after the concert, but Giovanni was begging to leave, so they did.

"You okay?" Cole quietly asked.

"Um… when are your friends supposed to arrive?"

"Soon I hope."

They were in a butcher shop. Giovanni had called ahead and placed an order. She and Cole had offered to pick it up for him. The ninja were supposed to meet them there and follow her back to the mansion, but they had yet to make an appearance.

"It's okay to be nervous," Cole said, squeezing her hand.

"I know. I was nervous when I met your grandparents, and that went fine. I was nervous when you met my parents, and that went fine. This should be fine, right?"

"Yeah. It's not like you're meeting my dad. Order for Burtchenelli," Cole told the butcher as they reached the front of the line. The butcher nodded and went into the back.

"We'll go back to your grandparents' place, have steaks for dinner, talk, and then they'll leave when I leave… Oh, they're not going to try and follow me home, are they?"

"They're spending the night."

The butcher came back with several wrapped packages of meat.

"Ten Angus ribeyes, five T-bones, four Angus filet mignons, fifteen boneless chicken breasts, twenty boneless chicken thighs, ten thick pork chops, twenty pounds of bacon, thirty sausage links, five pounds ground beef, ten Angus patties, and five sirloins. That'll be six hundred twenty-three dollars." The butcher started putting everything into bags.

"Is your grandfather trying to feed the military?" Nikki asked.

"He told me it wasn't a big order," Cole muttered as he pulled his wallet out. His card was declined. Cole groaned as he stepped to the side. Half an hour and three phone calls later, he was able to pay and leave with all the meat. He handed Nikki half the meat and the two started to walk to Nikki's car.

"Cole!"

The pair turned and saw Lloyd, Kai, Jay, Nya, and Zane running through the parking lot towards them. Nikki took a small step so she was sort of behind Cole.

"We've been looking everywhere for you! Why weren't you answering your phone?" Jay asked.

"Long story. I had to call the bank and was on hold for freaking ever," Cole said as he fumbled for his phone while trying to hold his half of the meat.

"Is that her?" Kai asked.

"Oh, yes. Nikki, that's Kai, Zane, Lloyd, Jay, and Nya." Cole did his best to point to everyone, but his hands were full so it was difficult.

"Hi," Nikki said meekly.

"That is a lot of meat," Zane pointed out.

"Yeah, we need to get back before it goes bad. Is that my Earth Driller?"

"Yep. It's the only vehicle big enough to carry all of us. It was this or Misako's minivan," Kai said.

"Who's driving?"

"I am," Lloyd said.

"Good. But, yeah, just follow us, and we'll show you the turn you can't seem to find."

After some debate, Kai and Nya piled into the backseat of Nikki's car. Cole, after putting the meat into some insulated bags in the trunk, sat in the front passenger seat. A moment later, they were on their way. They drove on the highway for about ten minutes, then they turned onto a less traveled back road for another ten minutes. Nikki seemed tense and didn't add much to the conversation. Cole, Kai, and Nya were talking about ninja stuff.

"Are you okay?" Cole asked after a while.

"Yeah. Just, um, it's a bit intimidating to look in the rearview mirror and see a giant drill behind me," Nikki admitted.

"Ah. Yeah, I can see that. It's supposed to go underground. If I'm ever cleared to drive again, I'll give you a ride."

"You still haven't been cleared?" Nya asked.

"No. Last time I was at the doctor's, I was still almost twenty pounds below 'normal range,' whatever that is. I've been eating right and working out a little more each day. I go back Thursday, so hopefully they give me good news. I could really use some."

"You ready for next Monday?" Kai asked, referring to the start of the trial.

"No, and I'd rather not talk about it."

"Fair enough. What are your grandparents like?" Nya asked.

"They're nice. Just stay on my grandmother's good side."

"Her good side?" Kai scoffed.

"Yes, Kai. I'd rather take on the Overlord, Pythor, Chen, evil Garmadon, the Preeminent, Morro, Krux, and Acronix all at the same time than Nana when she's mad," Cole said.

"She can't be that bad."

"If you don't believe me, then when we get there, stick her cast iron skillet in the dishwasher and see what happens."

"Maybe I will."

Nikki looked at Cole in disbelief. Surely Kai couldn't be that stubborn and ignorant. Kai went on a rant about how awesome they were because they were ninja, and he could take one old woman with both arms tied behind his back.

"So, Nikki, what do you do?" Nya asked.

"I work in my mom's bakery," Nikki replied.

"No wonder Cole's into you," Kai joked. Nikki flinched.

"Hey," Cole protested.

"Just saying, any girl who can make you a cake pretty much meets all of your requirements."

Cole reached back and flicked Kai in the forehead.

"Boys, behave," Nya said.

Kai made a few more jokes about Nikki as they drove, and they all rubbed her the wrong way.

As they turned onto the dirt road, Cole took his phone out and texted Jay to remind Lloyd that he would have to wait until the gate closed and buzz in once they were through. Over five minutes later, they pulled up to the gate.

"I wish your grandparents would give me my own code," Nikki said as she pressed the buzzer.

"Yeah, but ideally, I'm going to move out once the trial is over, so you won't need it," Cole told her.

"Hello, dear. Please use the back door when you come inside. I just waxed the foyer floor and I will cut off body parts if anyone dares step in there," Helaine said over the speaker as the gate opened.

Three minutes later, the two vehicles parked in the circular driveway. Lloyd and Jay helped carry in the meat as Cole led them around the mansion to the back deck. Helaine was working in the kitchen when they entered.

"Really, Nana?" Cole asked.

"My friends are coming over tomorrow night, and I want that floor to look impeccable," Helaine said, chopping up celery as she spoke with speed and accuracy. She only stopped to press a button on the counter.

"Page Gio," Helaine said. There was a beep, then some ringing.

"What, woman? I nearly had that level won!" Giovanni whined.

"We have guests. You will come downstairs and you will be on your best behavior."

"Fine." Giovanni hung up.

"What was that?" Jay asked.

"You know that smart house prototype that Mystitech developed? This is it," Cole said.

"We're in the smart house?!" Jay ran around the kitchen and dining room, fangirling the whole time while trying to figure out how to activate the smart house. He nearly ran into Giovanni as the old man rode the stairlift. Introductions were made, and Helaine kicked everyone out of the house onto the deck.

Everyone sat or stood in a circle. Nikki quickly claimed a chair for herself, and Cole sat on the bench next to the chair.

"Nikki, you should sit on the bench," Kai said.

"I'm fine," Nikki insisted.

"What, you afraid he has cooties?" Kai laughed. Everyone else gave him looks.

Nikki couldn't explain it, but that was the last straw. Kai had been nothing but mean to her all afternoon. She wasn't a confrontational person, but she couldn't take another joke. That plus Kai inadvertently invading her personal space pushed her over the edge. The others were saying something, but she didn't hear them. She stood up and slapped Kai's cheek. Everyone stared at her. Dread started to fill her body. Cole's friends would all hate her now. She ran away before anyone could say anything to her. As she entered the house, her vision became blurry. She threw open the first door she found and hid inside the dark room. It wasn't more than a minute before the door opened.

"Nikki?" Cole asked.

Nikki couldn't say anything. She pulled her knees to her chest and started to sob. She put her head in her arms so she couldn't look at anyone.

"Oh, sweetie, are you alright? What happened?" Helaine sat down on the floor beside her and put a hand on Nikki's knee.

Nikki couldn't speak. How could she? She hit Kai and she knew Cole wouldn't stand for that and dump her.

"Kai was teasing her and didn't take the hint to stop," Cole explained, putting his arm around her.

"Is he the one who said something about putting my skillet in the dishwasher?"

"Yes."

"Oh, don't you worry, Nikki. I'll take care of him." Helaine stood up and left the pantry.

Nikki wiped her eyes and leaned into Cole. He made her feel safe, something very few people could do. She also wasn't big on physical touch, but she appreciated how Cole somehow always knew when she needed a hug. A moment later they heard Kai screaming followed by Helaine yelling, "Get back here you pointy-haired cretin!"

"Your grandmother is very spry for her age," Nya said, appearing in the doorway.

"I told you Nana was scary," Cole said.

"Are you okay, Nikki?"

"… I'm sorry," Nikki whispered.

"Don't be sorry. He deserved it. Honestly, you could've hit him harder." Nya sat down on the other side of Nikki.

"Yeah, Kai doesn't always realize when he's stepped out of bounds," Cole added.

"Come on, let's go watch Cole's grandma kick Kai's butt."

For some reason, this made Nikki smile.


	39. Chapter 39

Cole sat next to Lou in the courthouse hallway. His grandparents were there, as were the ninja. Nikki couldn't make it, since she had an appointment in the middle of the trial that day, but she texted Cole that morning and wished him luck. All cell phones and other electronic devices were confiscated when they passed through the metal detectors at the entrance, so everyone was super bored. Due to the high profile nature of the case, the general public was barred from viewing the trial. Only approved friends and family were allowed inside. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife.

"Days like this make me wish I hadn't given up smoking," Lou muttered to himself.

"Your dad used to smoke?" Jay asked Cole.

"Yeah. Anna made him stop before they got married because she refused to marry a chimney," Cole said.

"When do we get to go in?" Kai said, tugging on the tie he hated but was forced to wear.

"The lawyers aren't even here. We have a while, so get comfortable," Lou said, stretching his legs out in front of him.

Cole was picking at his fingernails in an effort to stay awake, but he perked up when he felt his dad stiffen. He glanced up and saw Hermes and Kelly walk past them. He had seen them at some of the hearings, but he had never had a chance to really speak to them. He was curious about his maternal grandparents, but he knew Lou and Hermes had a history, so he let the matter drop. Still, he heard the stories about Hermes teaching Skylor to use her Earth power, and he couldn't help but wonder if they would like him or even want to get to know him after twenty years with zero contact.

"I thought he was in jail," Giovanni said to Helaine.

"Yeah, and I thought you were dead. Goodness knows you're old enough," Hermes retorted.

"Says the kettle to the pot."

"That's enough," Kelly said, dragging Hermes away.

"Hello, punk," Hermes said as he passed Lou. Kelly slapped his arm and they left to find seats elsewhere. Lou looked like he was ready to clobber Hermes.

"Lucien, don't let him get to you. We have a long day ahead of us, and I don't want you getting thrown out of the courtroom," Helaine said.

"I still don't see why Hermes keeps calling you a punk," Lloyd said.

"Remind me later and I'll show you pictures," Cole said.

"You will do no such thing." Lou glared at his son.

Cole was about to say something back, but he stopped when he saw the ADAs coming down the hall. Everyone stood up to greet them.

"You ready for this?" Michael asked.

"No," Lou replied.

The bailiff showed up and opened the door. Everyone slowly filed inside the courtroom. Cole, Lou, Giovanni, and Helaine sat in the row directly behind the barrier separating the audience from the well. They sat behind the plaintiff's table while Hermes and Kelly sat directly behind the defendant's table. The other ninja sat behind the Burtchenellis. Reporters sat in the other seats. Morgen was escorted inside a moment later. She looked smug in her brown pantsuit. A few minutes later, the jury entered and sat in the jury box. The court reporter entered next and took her seat in front of the bench. The bailiff took his spot by the jury box and waited for the judge to enter.

"All rise."

Everyone stood as the judge entered the courtroom. He was a tall, stern-looking, middle-aged man. He motioned for everyone to sit. ADA McFravel was lead counsel, so he stood up to deliver the opening statement.

"Thank you, Your Honor. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are here today to listen to the defendant talk about her relationship with her son who she has not seen in twenty years. The evidence will show not only how the defendant truly feels about her son, but also how she has tried multiple times over the past twenty years to end his life. You will hear the testimonies of her victims, who she held captive for years on end. You will also hear the testimonies of those who finally brought an end to her reign of terror. The defendant will have you believe that she did not know what she doing, but the evidence will show that she was of sound mind while she committed these horrendous crimes. Thank you." ADA McFravel quickly sat back down with his colleagues. Morgen's lawyer stood to offer his opening statement.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client here has done some terrible things. There is no denying that. However, as you will see, my client is clinically insane and she was not in control of her actions. Your job is to determine if she deserves to go to jail, where she will not receive any treatment, or if she should go to a place where she can receive some much needed help. The evidence will show that my client is in desperate need of treatment, and her actions were not of her own will. Thank you."

"Is the plaintiff ready with their first argument?"

"We are, Your Honor."

"Okay. This should be fun." The judge smiled and leaned forward in his chair.


	40. Chapter 40

The trial was not going well. The past few days were focused on the testimonies of Ray, Maya, and Libby. Libby's testimony was especially important for the plaintiff, but Morgen's lawyer tore her to shreds and reduced her to a blubbering mess on the stand.

Kai was the first of the ninja to take the stand- and on his birthday no less. He gave a clear explanation for what happened to Cole, but Morgen's lawyer was prepared. He poked holes in Kai's story left and right until even Kai wasn't sure what he was saying anymore. Zane, Jay, and Nya all had similar experiences on the stand. Lloyd faired the best out of the group, but Morgen's lawyer made him admit he and the ninja were not the police and they had no legal right to capture Morgen.

The weekend provided a much needed break. No one really felt like doing much of anything. Nikki went over to Cole's house after lunch and found him sitting in his backyard, leaning against the house.

"Hey," Nikki said as she sat down next to him.

"Hi." Cole tried to smile, but even the sight of Nikki couldn't cheer him up.

"I think your dad hates me."

"Why? What did he do?"

"He just kind of glared at me as I walked through the house. Your grandfather told me you were out here, but I think your dad wanted me to leave."

"Oh. Dad doesn't hate you. He's just tense because of everything going on right now. He really does like you. He wants to take us out to dinner one night after this is all over."

"Really?" Nikki asked as she sat down on the ground next to him.

"Yes. Things should go back to normal once this is over."

Nikki leaned against Cole. He put his arm around her. As much as she hated physical touch, she knew he needed a hug. They sat in silence for a while. She knew he was thinking about the trial. The sympathetic angle concocted by Morgen's lawyer seemed to be working on the jury, and it would take a miracle to convict Morgen. She wished she knew what to say so make him feel better.

"This is never going to end," Cole mumbled after a while.

"Yes, it will. The trial can't go on forever. And most people have testified, right?"

"Yeah, but I haven't. I don't know if I can. Libby was her prisoner for eighteen years, and her lawyer ate her up. What's he going to do to me? I was in a coma for three months because of her, and he's going to try and convince the jury she didn't mean to put me in a coma. Which I guess is technically true, since she meant to kill me."

"Then tell them that."

"There's no evidence she actually tried to kill me. Dad's account of what happened when I was a baby isn't relevant anymore. Too much time has passed, there were no witnesses. I think they think he's making the whole thing up. I bet her lawyer will convince the jury he's making it up. And my friends, well you heard what the lawyer called them."

Some movement out of the corner of her eye caught Nikki's attention.

"Cole?" Nikki tensed up.

"And Morgen's not going to testify at all, because she might incriminate herself. Heaven forbid she admits what she did to me. No, she's going to walk free. I can see it now."

"Cole?"

"Huh?"

"… That rock is moving by itself." Nikki pointed to a rock. Cole looked at it, but it wasn't moving at all. He put his hand out and tried to will it to move, but it refused to budge.

"Are you sure you saw it moving?" Cole asked.

"Yes! It was freaky!"

Cole tried again, but it still refused to move. He sighed and looked at her.

"I swear it was moving by itself!"

"Okay," Cole whispered,

"I know what I saw! I'm not crazy!"

"I never said you were."

Nikki looked away and wiped away some tears. Cole put a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry. It's just… You know how I'm adopted?" Nikki asked, hugging her knees.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I lived with my birth parents for way longer than I should've because they convinced people I was making everything up. They said I was a little kid with an overactive imagination and I didn't know what I was talking about. To this day, whenever I see them, they try and convince me that I had it all wrong. I know I'm not crazy, but they sure make me feel it sometimes. I mean, no sane person is scared to death of being trapped in a room with one or both of their parents."

"No," Cole agreed.

"It's like you said, they don't deserve my attention and I shouldn't give it to them."

"When did I say that?"

"Before group therapy with Dr. Mesda. But you're right. My parents don't deserve my attention and Morgen doesn't deserve your attention."

"It's hard to ignore her and what she did to me. Every time I see her, I just want to… ugh!" Cole slammed his fist on the ground. A nearby pebble flipped over. Cole raised an eyebrow and looked at Nikki.

"Told you rocks were moving on their own."


	41. Chapter 41

Cole felt nauseous. Everyone was gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom while the jury deliberated. Cole thought the worse part would be his testimony, but the waiting proved to be even worse. He thought back to everything he said on the stand. Was he clear enough on his points? Did he leave anything out? It was hard to focus with the way Morgen was staring at him, and her lawyer wasn't holding anything back. He wanted to believe the jury was competent. He wanted to believe they wouldn't forget Lou's statement that Morgen was a professional actress before she disappeared. He wanted to believe they would do the right thing, but he couldn't shake the nagging doubt that lingered in the back of his mind.

Morgen was cold and methodical. She calculated every move and patiently waited for the exact right time. She all but admitted to framing Dareth for the morphine incident, yet he was still facing the possibility of three to five years of prison. The cockpit voice recorder data had a near-perfect confession saying Morgen was responsible for Anna's death, but the authorities still could not pin it on her. Morgen's meticulous planning let her evade capture for twenty years. She wanted them to say she was insane. Two doctors testified, although they couldn't agree if she was actually insane or not.

"Cole?"

Cole jerked back into reality and looked around. Nikki was next to him, holding his hand. Jay, Kai, and Zane were sitting on a bench across the hall.

"Huh?" Cole asked.

"You were staring off into space," Nikki said.

"Oh. Sorry." He pulled a pack of mints out of his pocket and popped one in his mouth. He wished he could do more than just sit around and wait. He felt useless.

"Dude, relax. The jury is going to convict her," Kai said.

"Totally," Jay pipped up.

"It is only logical they should convict her," Zane added.

Nikki squeezed his hand in agreement. Cole took a deep breath. It was almost over. It felt like years had passed since the attack, but it was really only about eight months.

The ADAs walking through the hall caught everyone's attention.

"It's time," ADA Lavinsky said.

Everyone rose and made their way towards the courtroom where the rest of their party was waiting. The door opened and Cole, Lou, Giovanni, and Helaine were escorted to the first row behind the plaintiff table. Lloyd, Zane, Jay, Kai, and Nya sat in the second row, while Skylor, Nikki, Wu, and Misako sat in the third row. Hermes and Kelly sat in the first row behind the defense table. Reporters filled in the remaining seats. Morgen was escorted in a few minutes later. Cole wanted to punch her in her smug face. The lawyers quickly filed in and took their seats. Cole wished he could hear what the ADAs were whispering about. He guessed it was about going to the bar across the street from the courthouse. Not for the first time since the trial started, Cole wished he was old enough to drink.

"Look at her," Lou muttered, pulling Cole from his thoughts.

"Lou, sweetie, don't let her get to you. It's almost over. There's no way the jury won't convict her," Helaine said, reaching across Cole to pat Lou's hand.

"… You're right, Mom. In a few minutes, she'll be hauled off to jail, and I'll never have to see her again."

"Right. Now, where do we want to eat after this?" Giovanni asked.

"Somewhere with enough seating for everyone," Cole said, gesturing behind him.

"We have to bring them?"

"Yes, Gio, they are invited," Helaine scolded.

"Well, I'm not paying for them."

"Dad, you don't have to pay for anyone, you know," Lou commented.

A door slammed open. Everyone turned to see the jury walk in and take their seats in the jury box. They were too far away for Cole to make out their expressions accurately, but he thought they seemed to be dragging their feet as they filed in. As they sat down, about half of them looked at the ground. A hush fell over the crowd. Soon, the bailiff appeared.

"All rise."

Everyone rose to their feet. The judge walked in and took his seat. Cole held his breath as he sat back down. He glanced over at his dad. Lou looked just as nervous as Cole felt.

"Has the jury reached a decision?" The judge looked over at the jury box. The head juror rose to his feet.

"We have, Your Honor. We find the defendant…"


	42. Chapter 42

Skylor heard another crashing sound deep in the forest. She thought she was getting close to the source, but she couldn't be sure due to the echoes. She understood Cole was upset, but no one had ever seen him that furious before. The ninja agreed to give Cole some space and check on him the next day.

The first thing he did once he, Lou, Giovanni, and Helaine were back at Lou's house was lock himself in his room and refuse to come out. Lou was no help because he had pulled out vodka he kept in the back of the cupboard for special occasions. Normally he mixed it with something else, but he decided to pour himself a few shots and drink it straight instead. He wasn't totally drunk, but he did decide to punch the wall and managed to hit a stud and break his hand. One trip to the ER later and everyone decided to just go to bed. The next morning revealed Cole was not in the house. The ninja spread out all over Ninjago to look for him.

Skylor entered a clearing and saw Cole standing at the edge of the clearing, punching a tree that looked like it could fall at any time.

"Cole?" Skylor asked, keeping her distance.

Cole whipped around, his arms glowing orange for a split second.

"Cole, we were worried about you. Your grandmother said you took off sometime in the middle of the night and called us."

"I'll go back eventually," Cole mumbled as he punched the tree.

"Cole, I know you're upset-"

"Upset? Upset doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling. Morgen got exactly what she wanted. Not guilty by reason of insanity." Cole punched the tree again, and it fell with a loud thud.

"Yes, but she has to go to a psychiatric hospital now," Skylor argued.

"What good will that do? She's an actress! This was all just one big act! That hospital is nowhere near as secure as Kryptarium. A few months in there and she'll have them convinced she's sane and can be released back into society, and that's only if she doesn't escape first. Either way, she'll be free to come after me again!"

Skylor didn't know what to say. Cole was right. She watched him sit down on the tree he just knocked over. He put his head in his hands. She slowly sat down next to him.

"Cole…"

"And the others don't understand. How can they? Misako came back into Lloyd's life, and they have a great relationship now. Ray and Maya came back into Kai and Nya's lives, and they're making up for lost time. Libby comes back into Jay's life and they're getting to know each other again. Morgan comes back into my life and she puts me in a coma." Cole stood up and started pacing in frustration.

Skylor didn't know if she had ever seen Cole jealous before.

"Cole, I know what it's like to have a horrible mother. You've met my dad, you know someone has to be a certain kind of crazy to get mixed up with the likes of him. I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend that what my mom did was anywhere near as bad as what your mom did. She loved me, but I felt like there was always a catch."

Cole was silent. Skylor wasn't entirely sure he was listening to her, but she didn't want to risk pushing him away.

"… She got to the jury," Cole muttered after a while.

"What?"

"She got to the jury. That's the only explanation. Maybe if I can prove it, they'll declare a mistrial."

"How did she get to the jury?"

"I don't know, but while she was in jail before the trial, she managed to get Dareth to pressure the pharmacist into giving me morphine. She has to have an outside source."

"Okay, who?"

"I don't know."

Skylor felt bad as she texted the others to let them know she found Cole. She didn't know what to say to him. He eventually sat down on the ground and leaned against the knocked over tree.

"You know what the worst part is? Growing up, everyone kept saying that I didn't want to meet my real mom, that she was this horrible monster. I knew the divorce was messy, I knew she walked out on us when I was a baby, but I… I wanted to believe that she had a good reason. As much as I loved Anna, she wasn't my real mom. Every other kid I knew had two parents who loved them, and I wanted to believe that deep down she loved me and she wouldn't just abandon me. I wanted to believe that she would come back one day and everything would be great. It was a lie, I knew it was a lie, but I wanted to believe it. And now… I wish I never met her." Cole wiped away a tear and hugged his knees.


	43. Chapter 43

"Where are you taking me?" Cole asked as Kai pulled on his arm.

"I told you, it's a surprise," Kai said. He regretted not bringing backup. Even with a fraction of his super strength, Cole could easily stop anytime and Kai wouldn't be able to move him. For the moment, Cole's curiosity was getting the better of him.

"And I told you, I don't want a surprise."

"Dude, you've barely left your house since the trial. You need a distraction."

"What do you call fighting my dad over my career then?"

"A waste of time, now let's go."

"I feel like this is the start of every horror movie ever," Cole said as they went deeper into the woods.

"Do you really think I would drag you out here to kill you?"

"If this is about that boulder again-"

"It's not. Although I will say, the boulder has a nice layer of moss growing on it, at least, according to my parents."

"Why can't the boulder just become the new mascot of Ignacia?"

"Because it's blocking the main road."

Cole stopped when he saw what was up ahead. Kai followed Cole's gaze and groaned. Standing in the middle of the group of ninja plus Skylor was Hermes.

"What's he doing here?" Kai asked.

"He just sort of showed up," Nya said.

"Why?"

"Because I can. Because I wanted to meet my grandson properly, not in a court setting. And because I want to see this," Hermes said.

"See what?" Cole asked.

"Well, I was hoping you could teach me how to master Earth. I'm not that good at it, and Hermes showed us this exercise that I can't do, but we were wondering if you could do it," Skylor explained.

"Do what exactly?"

"I blindfold you and you beat up your teammates while I hold someone hostage," Hermes said.

Cole looked at his friends, who nodded.

"You brought me out here to train? What are you, Wu?" Cole demanded.

"Cole, it's not like that," Lloyd said.

"Then what is it like?"

The ninja were silent.

"What part of "my powers haven't worked right since Morgen attacked me" is so hard to understand? And another thing, you want me to blindfold myself and stand next to someone I can't trust? I'm not even sure I should be here now!"

"Oh, you can trust me," Hermes said.

"I'm not sure I can," Cole replied.

"Why not? Did your dad say something? You can't let him poison your thoughts. Make up your own mind."

"He said you broke into his home, threatened him, then destroyed the computer, the TV, the coffee maker, and over fifteen thousand dollars' worth of equipment and instruments."

"Fifteen thousand… No wonder they wanted to charge me with a felony."

"A felony?" Lloyd asked.

"Hey, Kelly bailed me out the next day, and I had a good reason for what I did."

"Tell me, why did you feel the need to attack a man who was recovering nearly being stabbed to death?" Cole crossed his arms.

"Because… Morgen told us he beat her and made her lose… you …" Hermes slowly explained. He knew it sounded lame, especially now, after everything that happened. Back then, he hadn't questioned it because he didn't think his only daughter would lie to him and Kelly.

"Grandpa's right: you're crazy," Cole scoffed.

"Your father isn't the saint you're making him out to be. He had a mullet once upon a time."

"He also has a tattoo on his shoulder he thinks I don't know about. What's your point?"

Everyone gaped at Cole.

"Your dad has a tattoo?" Jay sputtered.

"He was young and dumb once."

"Kid really was a punk," Hermes muttered.

"Would you quit calling him a punk? He's forty-six! Meanwhile, you have done nothing to prove that my entire family is wrong and I can actually trust you not to kill me," Cole added.

"I'm not going to kill you."

"Cole, we aren't going to force you to do this," Lloyd said before Cole could retort.

"We aren't?" Hermes asked.

"No. However, I think it would be a good idea to test where you are now, so we all know where you need to go. Maybe not by blindfolding you though."

"Can I aim for the crazy man's face?" Cole asked as he walked over to his starting position. Despite what Lloyd said, he knew the others weren't going to let him leave until he showed them something.

"Just don't leave a mark," Kai said as he took a position on Cole's right. Jay stood on Cole's left.

Cole took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to focus, but his mind refused to quiet down. He thought of his nana, who vowed to kill the man who endangered the lives of her youngest son and grandson all those years ago if she ever saw him again. He thought of the General, who would yell at Cole if he saw him hesitating now. He thought of Anna, who always told him never to throw the first punch or instigate a fight, but to win if he must defend himself. He wished she were here now to give him advice, even though he knew exactly what she would say to him.

"Soldier up," Cole whispered to himself as he focused all his energy on his powers. He felt them rise up through his body from his feet towards his heart, then out to his hands and arms. He felt his arms start to glow. He opened his eyes and saw Hermes' shocked face. Cole commanded a chunk of the ground up, but he could only manage a size no bigger than a baseball. He inhaled and tried to fling it towards Hermes, but it only went two feet before falling back to the ground.

"That was pathetic, even if your arms do glow. Mine never did that," Hermes said.

"Not helping, Hermes," Nya growled.

"I told you, between Morgen and the Vengestone, my powers are messed up."

"Vengestone?" Hermes asked.

"Vengestone is a common ingredient in anti-nausea medicine. Cole was on these medicines for months," Zane explained.

"Yeah, so now we know if anyone else gets super sick and is throwing up, we're limited to pretty much Dramamine and peppermint tea," Jay added.

"Okay, well, Cole, now we have a baseline. The question is, how do we improve that?" Lloyd asked.

"Maybe Wu has a tea?" Kai asked.

"We can ask, but I'm not sure he does."

"Or we accept that my dad is right and I can't be a ninja anymore," Cole deadpanned.

"Don't talk like that," Jay said.

"Yeah. You can still be a ninja. You still know Spinjitzu. You can still do ninja things. We just need to work on your powers," Lloyd explained.

"You're still family, Cole, and we don't give up on family," Kai added.


	44. Chapter 44

Cole crossed his arms and stared at the grave in front of him. He couldn't remember the last time he came here to visit Anna's grave. There were geraniums planted on the grave, put there by Bea every year. Anna had loved geraniums, especially salmon-colored ones, just like the ones on her grave now.

Cole took a deep breath and sat down. He thought about that morning. He had met Wu at Mystaké's old tea shop in Ninjago City. The two talked for a long time, mostly about Cole's powers. Wu admitted he didn't have a tea to cure Cole, but he didn't think that was the problem.

"Like when you first discovered your True Potential, you must again discover the obstacles within your heart and conquer them. Only then will your powers return in full," Wu had said.

It made sense. The only problem was Cole had no idea what the obstacles in his heart were. Last time, he had to fix his relationship with his dad, but they were talking and listening to each other now, so that couldn't be it. He suspected it had to do with Morgen, but there was no way he was going to visit her, or even visit Hermes and Kelly.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see who it was.

"I thought you were at work," Cole said as Lou walked up next to him.

"I got off early. You weren't at the house, you weren't with Nikki or your friends, there's only so many places you would go," Lou explained.

"So you guessed the graveyard?"

"... Wu said you might come here."

"That makes more sense."

"So why are you here?" Lou asked.

"Just thinking." Cole sat down on the grass. He pulled a couple blades out and twirled them in his fingers. Lou sat down next to his son.

"... Dad, I can't do security for Eric. I just can't. It's not for me," Cole said after a while.

"That's fine. We can find another job," Lou said.

"No. I already have a job. One I love and I'm not going to quit. Not yet."

"You can't be a ninja. What if something happens?"

"If Morgen escapes or plays her hand and reveals she got to the jury to get a mistrial declared, it won't matter where I am or what my job is."

"What if it's not Morgen next time? What if there's another Great Devourer? What if the Overlord comes back? What if it's someone who's more powerful than your team?"

"Anna once told me not to live in fear of the unknown. If she let her fears get to her, she never would've been a fighter pilot."

Lou was silent.

"I can't live in fear. Anna wouldn't let me do that if she was still here. There's always going to be a what-if," Cole continued.

"I know," Lou whispered.

"Even if my powers never really come back, I have to be a ninja. She would tell you to stop being stubborn and let me live my own life."

"This is starting to feel like arguments we had years and years ago. Did you eavesdrop on those when you were little?"

"I told you, I went to limbo and saw her there. We talked a lot about you and Morgen."

"Hmph."

"She also mentioned a bet and said she won."

"You're sure you didn't eavesdrop?"

"I didn't. Tell me about this bet she says she won."

"Figures she would think she won… when you were maybe nine or ten years old, we made a bet. About you. I said you would grow up to be a dancer or singer or something else in the entertainment business. She said you would grow up and go into the military. If she won, I had to get into a helicopter with her. If I won, she had to go to a baseball game with me."

"You hate baseball," Cole said.

"Yes, but not as much as she did. But neither of us won so it doesn't matter."

"I mean, we aren't as strict, but what we do is kind of similar to-"

"I said neither of us won! We both lost!"

"I can take you up on my elemental dragon to pay off your debt, you know if it ever comes back."

"No."

Cole gave up and turned to face the grave. He pulled a knee up to his chest and hugged it.

"I miss her too," Lou said after a moment.

"I… I was there, at the airfield, the day she… I saw the man who did it. I'll never forget his face," Cole admitted.

"You never told me this."

"No. I don't know why I never told you. I guess I thought you would be mad at me. The guy was super creepy. I went to the vending machine and he followed me there and he was just way too close. I went behind the counter where he couldn't follow me. I saw his name on the roster: Morgan Knight. I didn't know… I just thought he was creepy. Anna sent me to the library and escorted me to the bus stop. She said she was going to tell me what was going on when she got home…"

"I should have told you about her a long time ago. I was scared you would try to find her," Lou admitted.

"Well, she did give birth to me."

"I know."

"... I wish I had called her 'mom' just once. I don't know why I didn't. I wish I had."

"She didn't mind," Lou said, placing a hand on Cole's shoulder.

"How do you know?"

"When we first got married, she told me she wasn't going to force you to see her as your mom. She wanted you to accept her on your terms. She knew you were curious about Morgen, and I take responsibility for that. I should have told you the truth about your birth mother. Still, Anna didn't want to outright replace Morgen in your heart. Even though you never called her your mom, you still treated her like she was, and that was good enough for her."

Cole nodded. That was typical Anna. Always putting him before herself, right to the very end. As he watched the grave, he felt something in his soul snap. A good snap, followed by a rush of energy. Judging by how much his dad jumped, Cole guessed he had glowed for a moment. He put his hand on the ground and felt around for a chunk of Earth that wasn't near a coffin, which he found in the corner of the cemetery. He smiled as he made a pillar appear in that corner. He felt like his powers were still restricted somewhat, but he wasn't too concerned.

"Okay, on that note, I think it's time we go home." Lou stood up.

"Fine. Oh, one more thing, Dad. The other day, I met up with my friends, and Hermes was there. He said he wanted to get to know me better, but I was hesitant. I don't know if I should," Cole said as he stood.

"Oh, I really wish you wouldn't."

"I know how you feel about him, and he was kind of crazy."

"He is crazy. You would be better off without him, but it's up to you. He is your grandfather, technically speaking."

"Right." Cole didn't know what he was going to do.


	45. Chapter 45

It was Jay's turn to drag Cole into the woods. Ever since Cole told them he figured out the mental block and his powers had mostly returned, everyone was keen to get him training again.

"I hope this works and you can move back into the monastery again. It's been so different with you gone. It's just not right with only five ninja there. You did tell your dad you're moving back in, right?" Jay rambled as they went deeper into the forest.

"More or less," Cole admitted.

"Great! I've missed having my best friend around!"

"What about Nya?"

"Nya… is different. She's the love of my life," Jay said, choosing his words carefully, especially since he wasn't positive Nya couldn't hear their conversation at this point.

"Not a best friend?"

"I never said that."

"Right… Now, is Hermes going to be wherever you are taking me?" Cole asked.

"I don't know. He just shows up whenever he feels like it. Kind of like Wu if you know what I mean. And if you ask me, he is your grandfather and you should take the chance to get to know him better. He helped us take down Morgen."

"He did?"

"Yes. I don't know if we could've done it without him," Jay admitted.

Cole stopped to consider this. Jay waited for his friend a few feet off.

"He's really not that bad once you get to know him," Jay continued.

"… So what does he want me to do?" Cole asked as he started walking again.

"Uh, take your shoes off, blindfold yourself, then you have to defeat us by only feeling our vibrations or something like that."

"Oh, seismic sense?"

"Can you do it?"

"Sort of. I can tell if something is in the ground beneath me. Like when the Serpentine were a threat, if they ever burrowed near me, I could feel it. Or, the other day, when I was in the graveyard, I could tell where every single coffin was."

"That's a bit creepy," Jay said as they came upon the group. Hermes was with them.

"What's creepy?" Lloyd asked.

"Seismic sense. Jay told me what you want to do. I'm not blindfolding myself," Cole said.

"Yes, you are. You can't do this exercise correctly if you can see it coming," Hermes protested.

"I don't need it. I already know how to feel vibrations in the ground."

"Really? Then prove it." Hermes held out the blindfold.

Cole squinted his eyes as he stared at the blindfold. He growled as he grabbed it out of Hermes' hand. He kicked his shoes off, put the blindfold on, and stood in front of Hermes.

"Great. Who's my prisoner today? Sparky?" Hermes rubbed his hands together.

"Like I'd let you shove me off a cliff again," Kai said.

"What?" Cole lifted the blindfold up.

"Not important. Miss Amber, you're up then," Hermes said.

"Wait. You threw Kai off a cliff?"

"Blindfold down!"

"You really are crazy," Cole muttered as he complied.

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone. I once heard Uncle Wil ask Dad if preferred the General or the Crazy for a father-in-law."

"And what did your dad say?" Hermes asked as he and Amber got in their positions.

"Oh, the General hands down."

"Hmph. Everyone ready?"

"Yes!" Lloyd called.

"Okay. Cole, stop them from getting to Miss Amber here. Remember, the attackers are not allowed to use their powers. Whenever you're ready!"

Cole took a deep breath as he felt four figures rush towards him. He waited until they were about ten feet away before he quickly raised a wall of rock and pushed it towards them. The group did not have time to dodge. He waited a moment, listening for the movements of the fifth person.

"Out of the tree!" Hermes yelled.

As soon as they touched the ground, Cole used his power to turn the ground beneath their feet to sand and let them sink up to their knees before solidifying the ground again. Based on the yelling, he guessed it was Kai who was trapped. By this point, the other four were standing again, so Cole lifted the chunk of ground beneath them and sent it flying back almost fifty feet.

"And that's how it's done, Miss Amber!"

Cole removed the blindfold. Lloyd, Jay, Nya, and Zane were tangled up a ways off, and Kai was desperately trying to free himself. Cole ran over to Kai.

"How did you do that?" Kai asked as he took Cole's hand.

"Instinct?" Cole shrugged as he freed Kai.

"I'm surprised Wu hasn't taught you how to attack what cannot be seen yet," Hermes said.

"Well, clearly your powers are back," Lloyd commented.

"I don't know. I still feel like there might be some vengestone left in my system," Cole said.

"Well, I'd hate to see you do this at full strength," Nya added.

"Speaking of, there is that boulder…" Kai started.

"You and that boulder! Ugh. Fine. I'll take care of your stupid boulder," Cole said.

* * *

Cole stared at the moss-covered boulder. It was the largest boulder he had ever seen, but he felt like he could easily carry it out of town. Not that he wanted to carry it.

"We still don't know how Morgen managed to do this, since none of the buildings were damaged when she rolled this into town," Lloyd said.

"Yeah, it was just a distraction so she could kidnap our parents," Kai added.

"Why would she want your parents?" Cole asked.

"I guess she didn't realize Kai and I had their powers and thought they were still the Masters of Fire and Water," Nya replied.

"She had been living in a cave, so it makes sense she wasn't up to date on current events," Jay added.

"Anyway, we tried to get rid of this ourselves, but it's just too heavy. But you have super strength. You should have no problem picking this up," Kai said.

"I suppose I could pick it up," Cole said. He cracked his knuckles and his arms started glowing.

"Woah, my arms never did that," Hermes said.

Cole ignored Hermes and focused on his breathing. After a few deep breaths, he drew his arm back and punched the boulder, smashing it into millions of tiny pieces that flew everywhere. The ninja scrambled to protect themselves from the flying debris.

"Dude! What was that?" Jay demanded.

"There, that's taken care of," Cole said.

"… We just wanted you to carry it out of town," Kai said.

"Yeah, but this was more fun. And there's no more boulder, so problem solved."


	46. Chapter 46

The sound of a gong banging outside his bedroom door forced Cole to open his eyes. The room was still mostly dark, except for the tiny amount of sunlight peeking in through the curtains. It took him a moment to remember where he was. The monastery. Sunrise stretches. He had only ten minutes to get ready and get out there. Cole regretted staying up until two the night before video chatting with Nikki as he pulled himself out of the comfort of the bed.

He had moved the last of his things back to the monastery the day before and had spent his first night back in his room. The vengestone level in his blood was down to just below ten percent, but as long as he didn't try to push himself too far, he should be fine.

Cole sighed as he straightened his gi. He triple checked to make sure everything was fastened or tied like it should be. Still, the gi hung off his body. He especially hated the fact it was sleeveless. Normally he preferred the sleeveless gis, but not now. Not when his arms were little more than pale noodles. Though Wu assured Cole it wouldn't take long for him to start putting on muscle, Cole had his doubts as he pulled his belt as tight as it would go. He thought about skipping sunrise stretches and getting back in bed, but he knew Wu would never stand for that.

At two and a half minutes before it was time to start, Cole went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Kai and Jay were already there doing the same.

"Hey. You ready for this?" Kai asked.

"No," Cole replied as he put toothpaste on his toothbrush.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad. Master Wu knows you can't do a lot still," Jay assured Cole.

Cole shrugged and focused on finishing up before Wu came looking for them. The three made it to the courtyard with twenty seconds to spare and Lloyd ran to catch up before he was late. Nya was half-awake and leaning against the wall of the courtyard, while Zane was meditating in the center of the yard.

"It is good to have you all together again. It has been far too long," Wu said.

"Seriously," Lloyd whispered to Cole.

"No talking. Let us begin."

* * *

Training hadn't worn Cole out so much since Wu made him, Jay, and Zane complete the old training course. He knew when they sparred tomorrow, whoever he faced would win. Cole collapsed on the couch.

"You okay?" Lloyd asked.

"I knew I was out of shape, but I didn't think it was this bad," Cole admitted.

"You've been out of commission for over six months. Give it time."

"Maybe I'll sit out sparring tomorrow."

"But… I mean, it's your choice. If you don't think you can do it, we don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I know, you're all looking forward to the chance to beat me."

"Yeah…"

"What's going on?" Kai said as he entered the living room.

"Cole might sit out sparring tomorrow," Lloyd replied.

"But it's my turn to spar you!"

"It's everyone's turn, Kai."

"I just don't want to risk going back to St. Albert's. I feel like I just got out," Cole said.

"I think you just don't want to get beaten," Kai smirked.

"That too."

"It's your choice, Cole. We aren't going to force you to do anything if you feel like you can't handle it. Well, Wu might, but the rest of us won't," Lloyd assured Cole.

"My plan is to just take it one day at a time. Eventually, I'll get back to where I was before, it's just going to take a long time."

"Like Uncle Wu always says, patience is key."

Cole nodded. Sure enough, he got a little bit stronger with each passing day. Before long, he was back in his old routine. Skylor came by most evenings to train with the ninja or hang out with Kai. Some combination of Ray, Maya, Libby, and Hermes usually popped by once a week or so to "help train" the ninja.

Cole and Nikki video chatted most evenings, and they texted all throughout the day. If he wasn't busy, Cole would fly to her house on Fridays or Saturdays.

Overall, Cole was excited to see where life would take him next.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am so sorry this took a long time to post. I thought I had posted this, but I guess not. Whoops. Work has been super crazy since Christmas, and our lead at work ghosted us shortly after the New Year, but no one realized it at first because for the first week and a half, she called out sick. So we've been trying to transition me into the lead position and hire more people to fill in the gap. Unfortunately, this results in me working 10+ hour days most days, and I've just been too tired to write when I get home. The only time I get to write now is on my lunch breaks, which is only 30 minutes long and I have to use the Google Docs app on my phone.**

**Anyway, this is the last chapter. I want to thank everyone who followed me on this journey. I was very hesitant to do this, but my friends said I should absolutely put myself out there if I want to have some original work published in the future. One of my friends does have an account here, and she's the one who really encouraged me to try out this site. Go check her out and tell her SJ sent you. Her pen name is theoriginalbookthief07 and she does a lot of Marvel Avengers stuff. (My favorite story she's posted is called "****Alas, Thou Hast Misconstrued Everything!" and it's about that old Norse myth where Thor and Loki cross-dress.)**

**If you liked this story, then good news: the adventure is not over. I do have plans for two more complete stories- originally it was only supposed to be one more, but one idea I had just wouldn't go away, so now it's two. The first of these will probably start going up in April. I say this because I am going to Thailand in March and I don't want to start publishing it then have to stop for a while. But, I will also be publishing some one-shot stories that take place between What Makes A Mother and (name undecided). The stories will all be lumped together under a single title, currently titled "Stuff I Wrote On My Lunch Break/Stuff I Wrote When I Should Be Working." I'll think of a better title, but keep an eye out for that soon.**

**If you would like to read some of my non-fiction stuff, I do have a blog I sometimes update. Go to animatedthoughts and check it out. There, I give my thoughts on animated movies and TV shows. I usually only get to update that once a month or so, but if you like seeing people tear apart plot holes, terrible animation, and just overall bad choices, then you might like it.**

**Anyway, that was it. I will see you next time.**


End file.
